A journey through time
by roxygoth
Summary: How did the 7D go from living in Jollywood under Queen Delightful to living in the middle of a forest? This story will tell all...
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! Roxy Goth here, so I was watching a couple of episodes of the 7D and started thinking about how that show could link in with the original and thus this fanfic was born!**

 **I have only watched a couple of episodes and so am not sure if the dwarf's ages have ever been stated, so I'm making them up.**

 **So yeah, this is a sort of crossover with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs…despite the fact 7 of them are essentially the same characters… but you'll see.**

 **I do not own anything to do with Disney or any incarnation of the seven dwarfs. I do own Gentle and Watchful. On with the story!**

The receptionist at Jollywood hospital was currently bored out of her mind. For once there was nothing going on. That was, until, a small man with a bushy brown beard came running in.

"Is my wife here?" He asked, desperately.

"I don't know but I can check, what's her name?"

"Gentle. Gentle Dwarf. She's got to be here, I got a pigeon two hours ago saying she had gone into labour. I would have been here earlier, but I was working down the mine. I couldn't leave until all the jewels were collected….what am I saying? Where's my wife!? "

The receptionist thumbed through the notes and then nodded. "Ah yes. Just to check, you are…"

The man laughed nervously. "Watchful Dwarf, I'm her husband, please?"

"Just checking. You can't be too careful. Room 203. Down the corridor, up the stairs first room on the right."

"Thank you."

Watchful flew up the stairs, knocking into a couple of nurses as he did so, when he got to the top of the stairs he collided with a doctor.

"Sorry!"

The doctor gave a little laugh. "No problem. You seem in a bit of a hurry, something I can help you with?"

"It's my wife, she's gone into labour."

"Name?"

"I'm Watchful. Watchful Dwarf."

"No, her name."

"Oh – of course. Gentle Dwarf."

"Ah yes, well you'll be glad to know she's not in labour anymore." The doctor smiled widely.

Watchful jaw almost hit the ground. "You mean…"

The doctor smiled even wider if that was possible. "You're an official father."

"Yes!" Watchful punched the air. "At last! Is it a boy? A girl? No – wait, don't tell me! We need a boy to carry on the family name, but I've always wanted a little girl…oh! What am I doing hanging around here for? I need to go see Gentle! And the child! A child! I'm a father!" And he took off down the corridor.

The doctor watched him go, smiling as he descended the stairs. Times like this he loved his job.

Watchful soon found the door and burst through it, earning himself an 'Sshh' from the nurses. Apologising quietly he edged closer, smiling as he saw his beautiful wife looking absolutely exhausted, white-blonde hair everywhere as she smiled down at the child in her arms. She looked up as he approached, smiling gently.

"Hello daddy." She said, softly. "Do you want to come and say hello to your son?"

Watchful's heart leapt into his throat. "Son?" He spluttered. "A-a son?" He was so thrilled he was barley forming coherent sentences.

Gentle beamed as she nodded. Watchful edged closer, looking at his son curled up against his mother, thumb in his mouth, looking frankly adorable.

"What did he do?" He whispered.

This wasn't as odd a question as it sounded. It was a law within the dwarf community that the child was named within the first week of being born based on what they did during that time. The parents had to have a reason for naming the child what they did though. Watchful was named as such because apparently all he had done was stare at his parents and everyone who cooed over him. Gentle had apparently clutched everyone's finger with hardly any grip. Ok, maybe that could be attributed to the fact she was a baby at time, but the registrar's still deemed it acceptable.

Gentle smiled down at the bundle of joy in her arms. "Fell asleep." She said simply. "He just cried, obviously, and then fell asleep."

"Looks like he was a little sleepy then." Watchful joked.

Gentle's eyes lit up. "Oh, darling! That's perfect! You're a genius!"

"Why, thank you. Er…why am I a genius?"

"Sleepy. You said Sleepy, that's a perfect name for him!"

Watchful considered it; personally he thought it was a bit…dull. He knew there was only so far you could go with dwarf names but he did like it when the parent s showed they had actually used a little imagination…and he personally had always been fond of the name Doc…

Not that that mattered of course, he realised as he looked at his wife's joyful face. He recognised that expression, she'd made her mind up, and the child was going to be called Sleepy. Well…he had suggested it. Though now as he thought about it and as the child yawned in his sleep, he realised it was a perfect fit.

"Watchful?" He was brought back to Jollywood by his wife's voice. She was looking at him expectantly. "What do you think? Tell me if you don't like it, please."

"Don't be silly." Watchful lightly scolded, reaching over and running his finger round the child's bald scalp. "Sleepy Dwarf is an absolutely perfect name."


	2. Sleepy's diagnosis

**Hey! I'm back! Thanks to Erin Milne for reviewing!**

 **I'm usually against the whole 'diagnosing characters with mental/physical illness' thing, but in this case it will have an effect on the story.**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

"There's something wrong with that child." Watchful said, watching the now-two year old Sleepy sleep.

"For goodness sake Watchful, relax, he's only two." Gentle scolded, tucking her son and resting Mr Hicklepips, the child's teddy-bear next to his head.

"Two or not Gentle he should not be spending this amount of time sleeping! I know that's his name-sake but seriously, he's two! Two year olds do things; this is the age they start wondering about, starting to walk, constantly into things…"

"Watchful, you make it sound as if he's not doing anything; he has recently started walking a few steps…"

"Yeah, a few."

"He's two! What do you want him to do? Spring from the ceiling? Fly over the roof? Catapult down the stairs?" Gentle's usual calm voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Watchful shot his wife an irritated glance. "No, of course not. It's just not right, I want him to go and see a specialist."

"Specialist of what!?"

"Sleeping, to determine if there's anything wrong."

"Watchful for goodness sake!"

"No, Gentle, I insist. I mean, c'mon are you seriously not in the least bit concerned about him?"

"Of course I am, it's in the job description of being a mother." Gentle said, with just a touch of pride. She then caught her husband's eye and said, seriously. "But yes, I understand your point, but, I'm scared, Watchful. What if there's something seriously wrong with him?" She gave her son a frightened glance.

Watchful relaxed, walked over to her and gently kissed the top of her head. "Now, now, Gentle. What's the worst that can happen?"

"You're son has Narcolepsy." Doctor Sleepy-time announced, yawning himself. It was the next week.

Both parents stared unwilling to take it in, then Gentle spoke. "What does that mean? Is it life-threatening?"

The doctor smiled gently and assured her. "No, it's a condition that means he will have random sleeping-spells. He may do things during these spells such as getting up, talking, that kind of thing, but will have no memory of it in the morning. He might experience muscle-weakness, though this only applies to about 70 percent of people who have it. He'll need to be monitored for a couple of years, until we discover if he had that particular symptom or not. I suggest we need to monitor him until he's, ooh, about 6. Seven maybe."

"6 or 7?" Gentle gasped.

"What happens when he's six or seven?" Watchful asked.

"Ooh, then we'll be able to see if he has any other conditions and more importantly the muscle-weakness thing. By then you'll have probably come up with your own system for helping him. And that'll be the perfect time to discuss schooling but I digress…"

"Do we need to make any adjustments to the house? Be aware of anything?" Gentle asked.

The doctor scratched his chin. "I know you probably won't because of his age, but don't leave him alone just in case, supervise him in the bath, that will apply, ooh, all through his life…"

"All through his life? Even when he's an adult?" Watchful said, incredulously.

"Well maybe not, but definitely supervise him up until he's a teenager. Then you might want to reconsider, but I'll leave that up to you."

"Gee, thanks." Watchful said, sarcastically "You're to kind."

"Watchful." Gentle elbowed her husband in the middle. "Thank you, doctor. When will you next want to see him again?"

"Ooh, there's no point doing anything about it now. He's to young, I must say, it's one of the most extreme sorts I've ever seen. Narcolepsy is usually diagnosed mid-adulthood, or during the teenager years. Occasionally it's diagnosed in children, but those children tend to be, ooh, over 8. It's rare to have it diagnosed so young."

"Great." Watchful complained as they left the hospital, his wife carrying Sleepy. "Just great. So when he's older and other parents are going, my son the greatest star on the basketball team, or my son got an A* on his maths test, or my son learned to tap-dance at 3 and was a professional by four, I'll be then one going 'Hah! My son got diagnosed with Narcolepsy at two! Do you know how rare that it? According to the doctor he'd a freak of nature, we're so proud!"

Gentle eyed her husband, wondering if she could hit him without running the risk of dropping Sleepy, realising that would be impossible she settled for the next best thing, reason. "Oh come on, dear, you know that isn't what he was saying. He just said its rare which I suppose it is. It could be worse anyway."

"How?"

"He could be dead." There was silence then Watchful shrugged.

"Yes, I suppose you're right. What are you smiling at?" He said suspiciously, seeing the imp-like grin spreading across Gentle's face as she re-adjusted her son in her arms.

"I have some good news." She practically sang.

"Oh good, I need some of that, what is it?"

"I'm pregnant."

Watchfull's yells of happiness could be heard all around Jollywood.


	3. A new babe

**Hey! I'm back! With the first update of August, and thank you to FireFoxGirl14 for favouring! Now – on with the story!**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

The room was dark and gloomy. One ray of light shone in from the window. Gentle sat on a chair, head in hands staring at her new sleeping child. Watchful sat on another chair by the door, stealing little glances at said child.

It was two days since Gentle had given birth to the boy. It hadn't gone well, his heart had stopped and he had to be whisked out before he died. Even though the fact he had made it through the night meant he was likely to survive that didn't mean the possibility of brain damage wasn't there.

They sat in silence for a few more mites until the completely unnecessary cheerful childcare minder the hospital employed to look after children walked in carrying Sleepy. "Here you go." She said, handing him to Watchful who grunted an acknowledgement. "He was an angel. Did nothing but sleep, we had to move him from the playpen because he was posing a hazard can you imagine?" She laughed an annoying high-pitched laugh that made Watchful even more irritated.

"He's got narcolepsy." He explained gruffly, shifting Sleepy around so he was more comfortable. The child was now three and although more active than he had been when he was two, still not quite like Watchful had hoped he would be.

"At such a young age?" The nurse sounded sympathetic. Watchful bristled. The last thig he wanted now was sympathy.

"Yeah, diagnosed with it when he was two. Isn't it great? He'll never do anything. Never be taken seriously, never get into employment. Who wants to employ someone who's always falling asleep, for Christ sake?"

"Well…erm…" Now the nurse was stuck. She was new, nervous and trying very hard to remember the advice the senior nurse had given her about upset family members. Something about 'I understand' "I…I understand how you're feeling, Mr Dwarf but…"

"No you don't!" Watchful exploded. "Nobody understands! I've got two kids, one of which is still being tested, and will need special attention all his life and another who might be braindead. You have NO idea how I'm feeling, so don't you DARE tell me you do!"

The nurse shrank back. Now she remembered. 'I understand' was the last thing you should say…

"Watchful." Gentle's sharp voice interrupted him. "I can't believe you."

"What?"

"You've got one son who is currently fighting for his life and you're complaining about the one that's alive!? How selfish are you!? No child is perfect, not one of them. But we have to deal with the hand we've been given and the fact is we have one happy, healthy, ALIVE boy. And maybe his brother will have a brain-injury but you know what? We will have to deal with that, so stop feeling so sorry for yourself and start counting your blessings." Exhausted she fell back in her chair, looing again at her there son.

There was an awquad silence. The nurse left the room. Watchful spoke. "Gentle…I'm sorry. I didn't mean any of what I said, I adore Sleepy of course I do. I'm just…stressed."

"You're not the only one."

"He'll be alright." Watchful encouraged, walking over and snaking one arm around his wife's shoulders while the other cradled Sleepy at a frankly painful angle. "We'll be alright."

One week later and the doctor had good news. "Looks like he's well enough to go home. We will need to run tests on him though. One a month for the first year and then we'll see if we can space them out." He explained as the nurse handed the baby to Gentle.

"I tell you what why don't we just move in here?" Watchful joked, holding Sleepy's hand as his oldest son blinked up at the doctor. "You've got spare rooms haven't you?"

"Watchful." Gentle rolled her eyes. "What is it, Sleepy?" She asked, seeing the boy was pulling on her dress.

"What's baby's name?" He asked, innocently.

There was a silence. Watchful muttered a word under his breath that had Gentle shooting him daggers.

"I forgot about that." Watchful muttered.

"How do you forget?" The doctor was incredulous.

"We were a little preoccupied with the whole 'is he going to live' thing." Watchful Snapped.

"But Sleepy's right, the child can't not have a name." Gentle fretted. "I mean we can't very much yell 'Boy' across the playground, can we? He needs a name. But he didn't do anything, and it's been a week…what's the protocol? There has to be a protocol, tell me there's protocol."

"There is." The doctor said, much too both parents relief. "In circumstances such as this you can name the child whatever you want, see there's a silver lining to every cloud."

Watchful glared at him and briefly considered punching him until he realised Sleepy was still standing next to him. He refused to set a bad example.

Meanwhile Gentle's stress levels were going up. "Pick a name for him ourselves? We can't…how would we…I don't know where to start…Watchful!?"

Watchful looked at the clock and said, seriously. "You know, Gentle, my dear, I've always liked the name Doc."

"Doc? What…is that a name? Who calls there kid, Doc?"

"Gentle can I just point out we've got a kid called Sleepy, you've got a husband called Watchful and you're called Gentle. Plus we've got a doctor whose first name is, ironically, Caring. I don't think Doc is going to stick out that much."

Gentle sighed. "Okay then, Doc it is." She said, happily looking at the bundle of joy in her arms. No matter what he was like she was going to love him whatever.


	4. Private, public or special?

**Hey! I'm back, glad you're enjoying it, thanks for the guest review Bashful-Musician, it totally made my day.**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer and let's crack on with the story.**

"So? What's the verdict? Public, private or special?" Watchful asked, shutting the door of their house as Gentle took Doc out of his pram and Sleepy curled up on the floor.

They'd just been to the hospital again for another check-up for Doc; the child was now 3 months and despite all odds developing normally, much to both parents relief. While they'd been at the hospital however Doctor Sleepy-time had taken the opportunity to examine Sleepy and discuss with the parents what pre-school they were going to send him to come September. It was now August.

"I don't know, he's thrown me of guard, I though he said we'd wait until Sleepy was six to discuss schooling?" Gentle fretted, putting the wide-awake Doc on his stomach, on the floor and propping some cushions around him. He was just about getting the hang of supporting his top-half on his arms She got a rattle and put it in front of him. He ignored it.

"Well yes but technically pre-school isn't school, is it? It's nursery. The children play. Anyway the point is, the only private pre-schools are ones attached to proper schools, which could be helpful come six years old. They'll know him by then."

"Private schools cost money, Watchful. Something we are lacking at the minute, remember?" Gentle said, with just a hint of ice in her voice.

"Well, okay then. Special school…I'm not sure, I mean I know the doctor said that special schools are more equipped to deal with Sleepy's level of Narcolepsy…" Watchful rambled, throwing himself into his favourite armchair.

"Special schools are out of the question until he turns six. They're called special _schools_ for a reason, not special pre-schools…" Gentle told him, picking the rattle up herself and waving it in Doc face trying to get him to look at it. He looked at her blankly and started babbling again.

"So it's got to be state, hasn't it?" Watchful decided. "We can't afford private, specials out of the question, state it is, right?"

"Yes, but which one, Watchful?...oh Sleepy." She sighed as her oldest son got up of the floor and started walking around with his eyes closed.

"I've got it." Watchful said, getting up from his brief five seconds of peace and following Sleepy around as to ensure he didn't walk into anything.

"There's three to choose from, Teddy-Bear Preschool run by Miss Chocola, Unicorn Pre-school run by Miss Latela and Kind Hearts run by Miss Salmana."

"Why are all these pre-school run by women?" Watchful wondered, opening the kitchen door for Sleepy to walk through.

"Natural instinct I guess. I'm not sure about Unicorn, Miss Latela seems to be a bit…, you know? You look at her and wonder why she ever chose to do childcare…good boy Doc!" She said, eagerly as the baby reached for the rattle and took it.

"You do realise he's not a dog, right?" Watchful yelled from the somewhere in the kitchen. "Sleepy, watch it!"

Noting the panic in his voice Gentle tiredly turned around. "What's he doing?"

"Almost walked into the back door, don't worry I spun him around in time."

"You're not supposed to wake a sleepwalker, it's dangerous!"

"It's either that or have him walk into the door and injure himself, which would you prefer Gentle? The hospital's already sick of the sight of us; we don't need any more reasons to go back there…anyway he's still asleep"

"Oh good, no Doc, out of your mouth!" Gentle exclaimed, taking the rattle from him. He began to cry.

"He alright?" Watchful asked, coming back in the door with Sleepy just ahead of him.

"He almost chocked himself on a rattle, but I got him away from it in time…"

"Good…well I don't like Teddy-Bear myself. It always seems to me the kids there are just allowed to run wild, I'd like Sleepy to learn some sort of order…"

"Order? Watchful, darling, he's three."

"You're never too young to learn about rules, my love."

"Oh, whatever. SO that leaves Kind Hearts then, doesn't it?"

"I suppose…" Watchful breathed a sigh of relief as Sleepy lay back down on the floor.

"Good, that's sorted; I'll contact Miss Salmana…"

From his perch on the floor, Doc cried himself to sleep.


	5. Dreamy

**Hey! I'm back! Sorry for the delay, just planning this next chapter out. Thank you to Bashfull-musicion and imagonista for the guest reviews, I loved them both, thank you.**

 **This takes place six months after the last chapter.**

 **Okay, see chapter 1 for the disclaimer and on with the story.**

The receptionist at Jollywood Hospital had her back to the door sorting through files when she heard the bell ring. Turning around and smiling she said. "Hello, welcome to Jollywood Hospital…oh. Hello Watchful."

Watchful nodded at her as he angled Doc's pram a bit. "Hello Joy."

"Hey. How are you?"

Watchful grimaced a bit as he pulled Sleepy a bit closer to him. "Good, good…"

"Sleepy's at pre-school now, isn't he? Which one?"

"Kind Hearts run by Miss Salmana."

"Oh, I've heard of that one is he enjoying it?"

"Seems to be yes. And they adore him, he's so quiet they don't usually have to do anything except make sure he hasn't fell asleep anywhere in-appropriate. Anyway, Gentle's here isn't she?"

"Yes, upstairs room 307. Do you want me to take Sleepy and Doc?"

"No, I think they can come with us this time. Why?"

Joy shuffled a bit. "Well, you know Doctor Sleepy-time doesn't want to see Sleepy again unless there's a change in his condition until it's the Easter Holidays, but Doc has an appointment with Doctor Snow next week doesn't he?"

Watchful frowned, not sure where she was going with this. "Doctor Snow? Oh, yes, Caring. Of course he does, why?"

"Well, Doctor Snow actually has a free session open at the minute; I could try and get Doc in now? Save you coming back next week, that's all."

Watchful considered. "Yes, that sounds good…"

Joy smiled. "Great give me a minute." She disappeared.

Watchful sighed as he got Doc out his pram to feed him while simultaneously keeping an eye on Sleepy. Sleepy could actually be quite active when he wanted to be and this was one of those times as he was of around the hospital picking leaflets up and shaking them and going up and saying hi to everyone in the waiting room. "Sleepy." He hissed as the boy pulled at the front of an old women's skirt. "Stop that now, come over here."

"But it's soft." Sleepy said, rubbing his face in the women's skirt. The women laughed a bit embarrassedly.

Cheeks blazing Watchful put Doc back in his pram, who immediately started bawling the second the bottle was away from his mouth, and got up. "Sleepy, come over here and leave the poor women alone." He looked apologetically at her. "I'm so sorry…"

"No problem. How old is he?"

"Four. He'll be five in September."

"Lovely and the other one?"

"9 months. I'd better get back actually…" He said, raising his voice to be heard above Doc's wailing. "He's hungry, as you can, er, probably tell…"

"Watchful Dwarf?" Joy yelled, from her desk.

"Here." Watchful called back, grabbing first Sleepy, then Doc's pram and wrestling them both over to the desk. "Hello."

"Hello, I'll take the pram, Doctor Snow can see Doc now, and you can take Sleepy and go up to Gentle."

"Great." Watchful said, eagerly thrusting Doc at her. "Which room again?"

"307."

"Thanks."

Upstairs Gentle was curled up with a blue blanket on her stomach. Watchful slammed open the door, causing the blue blanket to burst into tears.

"Watchful!" Gentle scolded. "I've only just got him to sleep…hello Sleepy, do you want to see your new brother? And Doc…er, Watchful, darling? Where's Doc?"

"Relax, darling, he's with Caring. Er…did you say brother?" Watchful's voice lit up and he lifted Sleepy up onto the bed so he could see the baby better.

Gentle smiled. "Yes, brother."

"What has he done?"

"Nothing of any interest I don't think…"

"Mum." Sleepy interrupted.

"Yes, dear?"

"I think Daddy should tickle the baby."

Gentle frowned a little confused and looked over at Watchful, who shrugged. Watchful usually tickled Sleepy when he crawled into his parent's bed in the morning, but he couldn't see why the child was bringing it up now…

"Why?" Gentle asked, softly.

Sleepy stared at his brother and said, seriously. "Because he looks…grumpy and daddy always cheers me up when I'm grumpy."

"Does he look Grumpy to you?" Watchful asked, peering over his wife's shoulder.

She frowned, considering. "No, he looks…dreamy, like he's daydreaming."

"Well looks like we found his name then. Dreamy."

Gentle smiled down at the newly-named Dreamy. "Yes, Dreamy Dwarf has a nice ring to it."

 **Hey, don't worry I haven't gone mad, but if you read Grumpy's official bio, it says he was originally named 'Dreamy', so I used that, but I'm going to use it in a slightly different way….**


	6. All fun and games

**Hey! I'm back, sorry it's been over a month, I had a slight case of writers block, but it's gone now!**

 **So thank you to imaonista for your reviews, I always enjoy reading them.**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer and let's skip to the story which takes place 3 years after the last chapter. In regards to Doc, for those of you who haven't watched 7D, Doc is basically a gaditeer genius.**

Watchful opened his eyes and squinted up at the light. What time was it? He rolled over to see it was 4:30. He groaned and prepared to go back to sleep when he bolted up right. 4:30 PM. As in afternoon. Damn it, he went to sleep at 2.

Cursing a few words he wouldn't have said had any of his children been present he scrambled out of bed and grabbed his hat before starting to walk downstairs.

Where he could hear Sleepy talking to someone. His oldest son was now seven and getting on well at his special school.

"…And then I kicked it and it went in the goal. Really it did! And then the goalie was all like no! I lost!..."

Watchful fondly rolled his eyes; his son was so into football. He could play it quite well as well, he just needed someone watching to make sure he didn't injure himself should he fall asleep during a game.

"Who're you talking to Sleepy?" He asked reaching the bottom of the stairs and starting to make his way to the kitchen where Dreamy and Doc should still be having their naps. Which they weren't. Well, Dreamy was still asleep but Doc was awake, just staring at the ceiling probably only having woke up a couple of minutes ago. "What're you thinking about, little man?" Watchful asked, picking Doc up. The child was proving to be quite intelligent, only three years old and already putting proper puzzles together and stuff like that, even reading a bit. As Watchful hugged his son, Sleepy called out.

"Joy!"

"That's nice…" watchful muttered, a bit distracted as Dreamy screwed his face up. Joy was practically an aunt by now, they'd seen her that much. She'd even got Sleepy a present for his birthday this year…

Then it sunk in. Joy was on the phone. That meant something was wrong. To his credit it was a miracle he didn't drop Doc as he ran into the living room and yanked the telephone from Sleepy's hands. "Joy!?"

"Oh watchful, thank goodness. Listen, Gentle's gone into labour."

"What? Are you sure? She's not due for another week!"

"Er, yes, Watchfull I'm fairly sure."

"Right! Okay, er, I'll grab the kids, we'll be there soon. Which room is she in?"

"Room 209."

"Right! Thanks, Joy."

"Anytime Watchfull."

So with that Watchfull turned to his oldest son. "Mummy's having a baby, get in the car."

"Another one?" Sleepy whined.

"Yes another one, get in the car!" He ran into the kitchen and panicked momentarily wondering where Doc was before remembering he had him in his arms. So he went out to the car, shoved Doc in his car-seat, told Sleepy to get in, sit still and shut up and then went and got Dreamy who shuffled a little on being picked up but still didn't wake. He was such a good baby…

So after securing the two-year-old in the car and making sure there was no way any of the children could fall out Watchfull started the car and drove. About five minutes into the journey he realised something was kicking the back of his seat, looking in the rear-view mirror he saw that Sleepy had fallen asleep and was kicking his father's seat in a manner that was surprisingly rythmatic. Dreamy was still asleep and Doc was staring out the window looking far-away. Watchfull did sometimes wonder what was going through that boys head…

Eventually they got there and were lead up to the room by one of the nurses. Gentle was once again lying on the bed with a bulky blanket on her stomach. "Hello kids…" She said gently.

Sleepy [Who had woken up when being carried to the room], ran over to her immediately, while Doc copied his older brother but found himself unable to see his mother properly causing him to cry.

"Oh no…" Watchfull moaned as Dreamy started crying as well. He wore those two had some sort of telephetic connection at times.

Once a couple of nurses had taken the children away to the play area Watchfull sighed and stroked the back of his wife's hand. "So another boy, ey? What are we going to call this one?"

Gentle looked down at the boys smiling face and said. "I think…Happy. Don't you?"

"Whatever you want, my dear, whatever you want."


	7. Babysitting

**Wow. More than a month since I updated. So sorry. I have been super busy. Anyway, thank you my reviewers, favourites and followers and let's crack on with the story.**

 **I do not own Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or The 7D.**

 **This chapter takes place two years after the last one.**

"Are you sure you have everything you need, Joy?" Gentle confirmed, pulling her coat around her shoulders.

Watchful was already waiting by the front door. "She'll be fine, Gentle. She knows them well enough by now…"

"I know Watchful, but you can't help worrying…"

Joy smiled. "We'll be fine, Gentle, I promise. Go have fun now."

Watchful and Gentle where having a night out together for what felt like the first time in years. Probably because it was the first time in years. Joy had kindly offered to babysit and had been given a full list of instruction by the children's mother about what to do.

After waving the parents of Joy came back inside the house. "Children? Where are you?" She called out.

Immediately Happy ran out from the kitchen, catapulting himself in Joy's arms. "Hello, little man. Where are you brothers then?"

"There." Happy giggled, pointing in the direction of the living room.

"Let's go then."

She found Sleepy asleep on the sofa, the badge from his 9th birthday parts a couple of days ago left on the table. She picked it up and moved it to the mantelpiece, conscious of the fact that Happy still had a tendency to try and put things in his mouth.

Doc and Dreamy where in front of the TV, Dreamy watching a kids show and Doc ignoring it and doing a puzzle instead.

"What puzzle are you doing?" She asked, knowing how important it was to develop talking abilities as well as intellectual. Doc was five and although he could talk he didn't seem to that much. Although Gentle and Watchful hadn't raised any concerns, so maybe he just didn't like talking to people he didn't know that well?

"Jungle." Doc said simply, shoving another piece in.

"That's nice…Happy! Don't eat that!" Joy said sharply. Happy had picked up Sleepy's hat and was chewing on it. "Give it me…" She took it of him and he started crying. "C'mon, you can have your supper in about half an hour, banana how does that sound?"

"He likes banana."

Joy jumped. Obviously Sleepy had woken up then. The child stretched out on the sofa and sat up slowly rubbing his eyes while talking. "Yeah, Happy likes banana. So does dreamy, but you have to chop it up for him. Well both of them actually, Happy so he can eat but….Dreamy won't eat it if it's not chopped up because he's only a baby…"

"He's four." Joy corrected.

"Yeah, baby. I'm 9, and this time next year I'll be double figures. That's really grown up. Anyway Doc will eat his banana without it being chopped up. And I'll eat banana, but it…it has to be drizzled with chocolate." Sleepy blinked u at her.

Joy raised an eyebrow. "Oh does it? Nice try mister, but your mummy says…" She got the list of instructions that Gentle left her out of her pocket. "None of the children are allowed chocolate before bed under any circumstances." She folded it back up and smiled at Sleepy. "So nice try."

Sleepy pouted and fell back on the sofa.

Joy sighed and settled down next too him to keep an eye.

About half an hour later Sleepy had fallen asleep and started sleepwalking. Joy immediately got up, following him around to make sure he didn't walk into anything. As she directed him away from the back door she heard and bang and then a cry.

Scooping Sleepy up she ran back into the living room, gentle put him on the sofa, praying he'd stay and turned round to survey the damage.

Happy was on the floor crying, Dreamy was looking annoyed and Doc had finished the puzzle and was now watching his youngest brother with interest.

"What happened?" Joy demanded, dropping to the floor and examining Happy. Seemed to be okay, thank the lord.

"He tried to take the do-da, so I hit him." Dreamy sulked.

Joy looked at him. "Do-da?"

"The remote." Doc explained pointing at it. "Dad calls it a do-da 'cause he can never remember what it's called."

"Oh, okay. How old are you again?"

"Five and a quarter." Doc said, picking up the remote and switching it do a different channel.

"Right. What time is it? 7 o clock. Happy's bed time. Come on little man. The rest of you try not to kill each other, ok?"

"I'll keep an eye on them." Doc called.

Five minutes later Joy fled down the stairs. Thankfully the children where fine. Dreamy was still watching TV, Sleepy was wondering around the living room and Doc was sat in front of the kitchen door, watching both his siblings with interest.

"Everything okay? Do, why are you sitting in front of the kitchen door?"

"So I can keep watch of both of them. This stops Sleepy leaving the room, he can't open the door with enough force to move me…I think."

Joy looked over at Sleepy. "I think he might be able to if he tries hard enough. All right, I'm here now, come away from the door watch TV, or do puzzles or…something."

Dreamy went to bed at 8. Doc followed soon after at 8:15. And that just left Joy and Sleepy watching TV until 8:30 when Joy picked Sleepy up and put him to bed.

Gentle and Watchful came back at 11 clock. Gentle wanting to know about the condition of her children and Watchful had quite clearly had a few.

Joy smiled, assured them both everything was fine, apologised for eating quite a bit from the fridge and left. She made it home at 11:30.


	8. Christmas

**Hi! Sorry for the delay, but you know. Christmas, talking of which, hope you all enjoyed your holidays!**

 **Right here's the next chapter, hope you enjoy, see chapter 1 for the disclaimer, it takes place nearly two years after the last chapter.**

As the light streamed in through the window, Happy's eyes flew open and he smiled. He was excited today, really excited and for some reason he couldn't think of why he was so excited.

The three year old climbed out of his bed and looked across at Sleepy, who had the pleasure of sharing a room with him. His older brother had a stocking with a suspicious present-shape bulge at the bottom of it at the end of his bed. Excitement flaring up inside of him again Happy ran to the end of his bed and yes! There was a stocking there, with a present inside!

"SLEEPY!" He yelled, catapulting himself on his brother's tummy causing Sleepy to wake with a yell of pain. "IT'S CHRISTMAS!"

"I know." Sleepy wheezed. "Get of me, Happy." With a frown of annoyance the 10 year old pushed the child of his bed and turned away, pushing the covers up around his ears he prepared to go back to sleep. Then he paused and sat up. "Wait a minute…did you say it's Christmas!?"

Happy nodded.

"Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" And with that Sleepy threw his bed cover on the floor and leapt up, causing the baby in his cot in the corner of the room to cry.

"You woke up Sneezy!" Happy accused.

"Did not! Well, didn't mean to anyway…."

"What's all the noise in here? Some of us are trying to sleep!" Doc complained, standing at the door. He and Dreamy shared a room just down the hall. The sleeping arrangement was so Sleepy when sleepwalking could safely walk down the stairs without having to turn any corners as his room was directly in front of the stars. Doc and Dreamy got on very well, and Dreamy tended to be annoyed by Happy, though Doc and Sleepy could tolerate him. And as for Sneezy he'd been put into Sleepy and Happy's room because Sleepy can sleep through anything, so his crying didn't matter. And Happy was a great alarm for when Sneezy was crying because if either Gentle or Watchful didn't arrive within two minutes Happy would go and wake them up to inform them the baby was crying. Dreamy got grumpy when his sleep was disturbed too much and Doc liked to plan inventions and stuff using all available space in the room, which was obviously an injury hazard for the baby, so that's why Sneezy was in Sleepy's and Happy's room.

"It Christmas!" Happy yelled.

Doc paused and then blinked. "So it is."

"Did you forget?" Dreamy yelled from his room. "Doc! It only happens once a year!"

"Yeah alright, Dreamy!"

"What's all this noise for?" Watchful said in mock-annoyance coming out of his and Gentle's room. "You'd think it was Christmas!"

"It is!" Happy giggled, catapulting himself into his father's arms.

"Is it? Again? Well then, you'd better get your stocking hadn't you, c'mon into our room. Where's Sneezy?"

"Here." Sleepy said, having reached in and lifted Sneezy out of his cot a couple of minutes ago.

With a certain amount of panic Watchful took Sneezy from his oldest son. It wasn't that he didn't trust him, it was just Watchful sometimes had visions of Sneezy falling on the floor because Sleepy had fallen asleep suddenly. So far it hadn't happened and for the whole three weeks since Sneezy had been born Sleepy had been quite helpful, but the thought was always at the back of his mind.

"Shall we open our gifts then?" Gentle said, clapping her hands together. "Watchful first…" They always did this, oldest to youngest. Watchful insisted it taught the children patience. "Here you go, dear..."

"A tee-shirt and…a pocket knife?" Watchful shot his wife a look. She rolled her eyes.

"It's for the mine, Watchful. You're always complaining you can't dislodge the smaller gems, now you can."

"Thank you dear." Watchful pecked his wife on the cheek, to a chorus of 'yuck!' from the children. "Enough of that you lot. What have you got me?"

"This." Sleepy leaned over and got a square package. "Here you go."

"Oh, a picture frame. How lovely boys."

"I made it." Doc said eagerly. "Dreamy designed it, I made it and then Happy painted it and Sleepy handed us screws."

"Thank you boys. Now you my wife…" Two presents later and Gentle had a necklace made of gems, hand crafted by Watchful himself, and a picture frame that had the same design of her husbands but a different couler scheme, from her sons.

Sleepy got a new football from his parents, a book on football from Doc and Dreamy, a picture of…something from Happy and a new football top 'from' Sneezy.

Doc got a magnifying glass from his parents so he could examine insects in the backyard without actually having to pick them up and take them inside, which always unnerved Gentle. Sleepy got him a book on Elves. Dreamy gave him a book on the history of the Violin. Happy gave him a scribbled picture. He also got a book on 'Horrible Science' 'from' Sneezy. "You know I know this isn't really from Sneezy right?" The seven year old said, seriously.

Dreamy got a dream-catcher from his parents, Sleepy and Doc had given him a piano-book as Dreamy had been playing it for a year now. And Happy gave him a scribbled picture. Sleepy 'gave' him a good-luck charm to sit on top of the piano Watchful had crafted for Dreamys fifth birthday. Dreamy was now six.

Happy got an assortment of colouring books and pens from his siblings and parents. Sneezy got soft toys and blankets and things which caused him to sneeze multiple times.

"I don't like that sneeze." Watchful muttered to Gentle later when the whole family were downstairs and the children were playing with their presents.

"Watchful leave it, it's Christmas." Gentle muttered back to him while jointly holding Sneezy and keeping an eye on Happy.

So Watchful did and did his best to enjoy Christmas Day.

 **BTW, I really hope the ages aren't confusing you lot too much. I am trying to keep it fairly simple.**


	9. Allergies

**Hey! Roxy Goth here. First of all, massive apology for not updating for like, two months. And a thank you to Imagonista for reminding me that the story does exist.**

 **This chapter takes place about 4 months after the last one.**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

Gentle stared, slightly timidly as the bustling maternal figure of the paediatric allergy specialist ran around the doctors room gathering things she'd need. After Watchful insisted for the 20 thousandth time they take Sneezy to the hospital Gentle finally complied. At first she thought Watchful was just being a drama-king, but after two months of sneezing doubts began to enter her head. By the fourth month it had turned into full-out panic and they'd taken Sneezy to Doctor Caring Snow, who had announced they'd need to see a specialist of Allergies in children. A paediatrician. So here she was. Watchful was at home looking after the rest of the children.

"What's your son's name again?" The specialist's nasally voice pulled the mother-of-five from her thoughts.

"Sneezy. Sneezy Dwarf." Gentle told her, pulling her coat and bit together round her shoulders. The room was freezing.

"Right okay, first up, family History. Anything I need to know?"

"My oldest son Sleepy has narcolepsy, diagnosed with it when he was two. My next oldest, Doc, had a few issues at birth but's fine. His nursery gave him an IQ test actually. He's in the gifted section." Gentle said with a considerable amount of pride, "Dreamy, my next oldest, has no problems at all and neither does Happy, my second-youngest."

The specialist consulted her clipboard and then tapped her foot impatiently. "Mrs Dwarf. Although that information is useful, it's also detailed in your children's respective notes. What I MEANT was if anyone in your family has a history of allergies, seeing as that's what we appear to be looking at here."

Gentle flushed with embarrassment at that. "Oh. Of course, well. None of the children are allergic to anything, nor am I or Watchful. But my dad had Hay Fever."

The specialist started scribbling furiously. "When was this diagnosed?"

That threw Gentle a bit. "I-I don't know! Sometime in his childhood I think? Why are you asking me? I wasn't born then! Can't you look it up in the notes, Miss Alergin?"

Miss Alergin sighed from the apparent stupidity of the enquiry. "We don't keep patients records when they die, Mrs Dwarf. They're sent to a secure facility."

Gentle bristled. "Can I just point out that you, Miss Alergin, could actually be a bit politer and nicer? I am actually trying to help you here so if you could stop talking to me like I'm a two year old instead of a responsible mature adult that would be lovely."

The specialist paused to digest what Gentle said before plastering a smile on her face. "My apologies Mrs Dwarf. Thank you for your help. We're going to perform a skin prick test on your son now."

"I'm sorry, a what?"

"A skin prick test. It's where a tiny amount of the allergen to be tested is put on the skin, usually in liquid form. Each drop of liquid is then pricked with a tiny needle, which punctures just the top layers of skin. After 15 to 20 minutes I will check what reaction has happened on the skin. He'll be in no danger, but I will need you to turn him over onto his tummy for me."

"Why his stomach?" Gentle questioned, as she picked Sneezy up and turned him over onto his front.

"Normally with a test like this we'd use the forearm, however this doesn't tend to work with babies, they don't have enough skin for sufficient testing, so we've found that either the back or thigh works best."

Gentle nodded and allowed the specialist to do her work. Sneezy cried when he felt the needle enter his skin about 10 different times as the specialist tried different allergies on him.

After 20 minutes Miss Alergin was back with the results. Gentle looked up from comforting Sneezy, her face screwed up in worry.

"Well you'll be glad to know he isn't allergic to things like nuts or generally food. The specialist announced.

Gentle had been in enough hospitals to know the drill by now. "But he is allergic to something?"

"He's got Allergic rhinitis, that'sinflammation of the inside of the nose caused by an allergen, such as pollen, dust, mold or flakes of skin from certain animals **.** " Miss Alergin admitted, smiling in sympathy when Gentle groaned.

"Alright, what are they?"

"Dogs, cats, guinae pigs, squirrels, rabbits and deer's."

"Oh, as long as it's only a few." Gentle said snarkily as she massaged her throbbing temple with one hand while cradling Sneezy with the other. "Wait, did you say dust. Are you kidding me?" Gentle gasped in anguish, looking up. "How can he be allergic to dust? I clean my house all day! Seriously, I don't work. Once the children leave I clean the house. That's what I do!"

"Which would have helped I'm sure." The specialist quickly said. "But what I actually meant specifically was house dust mites"

"House dust mites?"

"They're tiny insects that feed on the dead flakes of human skin. They can be found in mattresses, carpets, soft furniture, pillows and beds."

That settles it, I'm never going to sleep again, Gentle though as the specialist prattled on.

"The allergy isn't caused by the dust mites themselves, but by a chemical found in their excrement. Dust mites are present all year round, although their numbers do tend to peak during the winter."

"So he's got an allergy to dust mites that flare up during the winter?" Gentle said in disbelief.

"And an allergy to animals that are around all year long." The specialist said helpfully.

"Right. So how do we treat it? Or at least keep it at bay?"

"How old is he?"

"4 months, nearly 5.'

"Ah. We can't give him Saline Nasal Spray till he's six months.. This'll help clear out his nose so it's easier for him to breath. One into each nostril when required. Some tablets may be required when he's older, but we'll see. We'll need to…"

"Monitor his condition? Yeah, I guessed. How long for?"

The specialist gave another smile. "However long the allergies persist. We'll need to monitor him up till 2 at least, then we can see about giving him the tablets. From then it depends on how well they work. There's also a strong chance he'll have hay fever as well. But that doesn't develop till the child's around 2 or 3. So come in if anything happens around then."

"Is that it?" Gentle asked. The specialist nodded.

She got up. "Well thank you Miss Alergin. How soon can you get the spray?"

"Within the next two-three weeks."

"Lovely, thank you." And with that Gentle walked out the surgery, Sneezy still sniffling in her arms.


	10. Suspicious

**Hey! Hope you're all alright; this chapter takes place about 5 months after the last one.**

 **Warning: Mentions of bullying.**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

Watchful was suspicious. Very suspicious. For the last month Doc had been coming home with bruises on his arms and occasionally his legs. At first he said he'd fell over and Watchful stupidly swallowed it. After the 5th time this happened though Watchful found himself getting worried.

With his family's record, the first thing he'd done was look up the symptoms of Dyspraxia, a condition that causes poor motor control. He decided it wasn't that after looking though the symptoms and seeing that they usually appeared by three years old. Just to be sure he checked the other ages mentioned, 7/8 and about 11 respectively and although Doc did have a couple of the symptoms, such as being easily distracted and doing limited, I.E. hardly any in Doc's case, creative play, the amount of symptoms he didn't have was enough to convince Watchful that dyspraxia was not the answer.

That was about two weeks ago. At the end of the third week, when Doc had come home with scraped knees, Watchful confronted him about it and they'd somehow ended up in a conversation about how newspapers were made, of all things.

Seeing that confrontation wasn't going to work Watchful sort out his wife's advice, who had noticed and was concerned and so decided to try the exact same thing that her husband tried and ended up in a conversation about how houses were built.

This is what happens when you have a genius for a son. You never get anywhere.

So, in a wild fit of panic Watchful questioned his other children. Except Sneezy of course, you can't have a legitimate conversation with a nine month old. Happy, who was still four, though he'd be five, next month, stared blankly at him. Then gladly told him he'd seen Doc around from his play-group at the children's school, but that was it.

In complete fairness Watchful didn't think he'd understood the question, but then again maybe he'd had too many high expectations from a boy who was only in his second year of pre-school.

He'd talked to Sleepy next. His oldest son had turned 11 a fortnight ago, and was enjoying his status. "I'm in the top year now! 6th grade, that's really high." He kept saying. When Watchful questioned him about Doc, Sleepy said he hadn't noticed, but that would make sense as to why he'd suddenly decided to wear long-sleeved jumpers.

Finally Watchful talked to Dreamy, who, upon reflection, it may have better to start with. Dreamy was after all only a year below Doc and in the same building as him, unlike the other two.

"Has Doc been alright at school, lately?" Watchful asked his middle-son as he helped him with times-tables.

Dreamy nodded as he counted on his fingers. "Yeah, I think so. He still sits with me and my friends at lunchtime."

Watchful winced internally. Doc had never liked socialising with children his age, and that was unlikely to ever change, but that didn't mean Watchful had to like that fact. "No change in his behaviour?"

"His what?" Dreamy looked up, confusion evident on his face.

"Behaviour. It means the way he acts, has he started acting differently?" Watchful explained, patiently.

Dreamy screwed his face up in thought and stuck his tongue out a bit as he tried to remember how his immediate older brother had been acting over the last couple of weeks. "He hangs around with those boys."

"Which boys?" Watchful asked, immediately.

"Jumpy, Juggy and Crier."

The father-of-five groaned, putting his head in his hands. Jumpy, Juggy and Crier were three tough boys who were in the top grade at the elementary school. They had quite the reputation for being troublemakers. Funnily enough he couldn't see Doc hanging around with them at least, not willingly.

The mini-second that thought ended Watchful felt like kicking himself. He knew what was going on, he just couldn't believe it'd taken him this long to get there, and felt like strangling Jumpy, Juggy and Crier one by one. Immediately he got up and started out the kitchen.

"Daddy, where are you going?" Dreamy asked, in complete bewilderment.

"I'm going to have a word with Doc."

"But what about my times tables?"

"Go through the threes again. Try and get it in your head, I'll be back in about 10 minutes, promise." Watchful called as he ran up the stairs to his second-oldest room.

He threw the door open, completely surprising Doc who was in the middle of constructing a mini-replica of the Eiffel Tower, and demanded. "Are you being bullied!?"

Doc stared at him with huge owl's eyes, then his face crumpled and he began to cry. Watchful started at him for a couple of seconds then face-palmed. Of course Doc was upset, if he was being bullied he probably though it was somehow his fault, and if he thought that then Watchful banging the door open and yelling at him probably wasn't going to exactly ease his nerves. "Sorry! Sorry…oh, Doc. Please don't cry…" Watchful picked him up, sat on Doc's bed and began rocking him back and forth. The rocking motion had always calmed Doc down.

"Is Doc crying!?" Gentle yelled up the stairs.

Watchful rolled his eyes. As much as he adored his wife, this wasn't the time for one of her concerned freak-outs. "Yes!"

"What's wrong with him!?"

"I'll tell you when I've calmed him down, dear!" Watchful called, sensing Doc beginning to calm a bit.

A few more minutes of rocking and he was fine. "Now Doc. I want you to tell me what's been going on." Watchful said in a voice that was a mix between caring and no-nonsense.

Doc took a deep breath and told his dad everything that had been happening in the past month in one big rush. Watchful listened patiently and then confirmed a few things before nodding, ruffling Doc's hair, congratulating him for telling him and then allowed Doc to go back to his model-making while he went downstairs to have a word with Gentle.

"Where's the address for the school?" Watchful demanded, throwing the kitchen door open.

Gentle looked up from where she'd been helping Dreamy. "Where we keep all the other important addresses, on the fridge. Why what's wrong? Watchful? Watchful! Don't ignore me, sorry Dreamy," She added as she got up and accidently clonked her son across the head with her elbow. "Watchful! What's going on?" She stood by her husband while he wrote a letter.

"Is the school open?"

Watchful started at him like he'd lost his head. "Of course not, dear, it's Saturday."

"Ugh." Her husband face-palmed.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Doc's being bullied."

"What!?"

"Doc. Our son. Is being. Bullied."

"How? Where? Why?"

"Where, before and after school. How, being hit and pushed, which explains the bruises, and also insulted, teased, and threatened."

"Threatened!?"

"You know, don't tell or else we'll attack your brothers, that kind of thing."

"Oh." Gentle put her hand on her heart. "I thought you meant death threats."

Watchful signed his name at the bottom of the letter and stared in horror at his wife. "No! If it was death threats do you think I'd be wasting my time with the school? I'd be going to the police!"

"Right, of course. Do we know why?"

"No. Where's an envelope? Most idiots like Jumpy, Juggy and Crier don't need reasons. Though I imagine it's something to with the fact that Doc's a genius and they can barely master the two times tables. Oh, and I think Doc mentioned they were insulting him quite a bit about Sleepy?"

"Sleepy?"

"Everybody knows he has narcolepsy and attends a special school, Gentle. This is a small village. And of course they wouldn't be educated enough to understand the value of equality and diversity. Oh for Christ sake, where the hell is an envelope when you need one!?" Watchful stood in the middle of the kitchen twirling round like a dog trying to chase its own tail.

"They're in the living room, under the bookshelf, Watchful, where they always are." Gentle reminded him, patiently. Then her eyes narrowed. "I hope you haven't put that in the letter."

"What?"

"That bit about them not being smart enough to recite the two times table. And not being educated enough to understand the values of equality and diversity"

"So what if I have?"

"So what!? Watchful, this letter is going to the school. It needs to be professional, give me that." Gentle snatched the letter out her husband's hands before he had a chance to blink.

Unfolding it, she read. _"Dear Miss Brown-Stocking. It has come to my attention that my son, Doc Dwarf, is being bullied by three boys by the name of Jumpy, Juggy and Crier."_ She nodded approvingly at Watchful. "Good so far." She went back to reading the letter. _"As you are no doubt aware this is against the rules of the school. So I would like a meeting with you to discuss what you intend to do about it."_ She read the next bit and her eyes turned to slits. "Watchful! You can't put this."

"Why not? It's true!"

"Excuse me, this is not acceptable _'If you cannot come up with something to punish these boys with, preferably a vault of molten lava, I will take you to court myself. And if you are thinking the threats of a jewel-miner are nothing to be worried about, may I remind you that my wife is a lawyer and will have no hesitation kicking your…behinds…in court."_ Gentle glared at her husband and threw the letter on the side. "Watchfull you CANNOT put that."

"It's true!"

"I don't care if it's TRUE, there's ways to do this kind of thing and _that_ is **not** it. Now, you go help Dreamy with his times-tables and _I'll_ deal with this letter. And _I'll_ give it to the head myself on Monday as there's no point sending it now as, and I believe I've already mentioned this, it's SATURDAY."

Watchfull bristled a bit, but seeing his wife's determined look, he realised he wasn't going to get anywhere with her and turned round to face Dreamy. "Now Dreamy, my boy…where is he?"

"You haven't lost him already?" Gentle asked in annoyance, as she mentally re-read the letter.

"No my dear I know exactly where he is." Watchfull re-assured her as he walked out the kitchen and shut the door. He sighed and wiped his for-head as he muttered. "He's not here."

"Who're you looking for?" Sleepy asked, he and Happy were on the couch, watching a kids TV show.

"Your brother."

"Which one?"

"Dreamy!" Watchfull snapped, before controlling himself. "I'm looking...for Dreamy."

"Oh, he went upstairs."

"When?"

Sleepy shrugged. "I dunno. Bout five minutes ago? I dunno, I wasn't watching."

Cursing silently, Watchfull climbed the stairs, wondering what it was like to have helpful children. Once he'd reached the top he made his way towards Doc and Dreamy's room and opened the door. The sight inside made him smile.

Dreamy had obviously been eavesdropping on his parents conversation and, once he'd got the gist of it, come upstairs to talk to Doc. Judging from the tear tracks on his cheeks, Doc had obviously had another little crying fit once Watchful left him and that was probably how Dreamy found him. Now the pair of them were asleep, curled up on Doc's bed, Dreamy lying a protectfull arm around his older brother.

Watchfull smiled and closed the door. He'd let them sleep a little while longer, there was an hour till tea anyway, he thought as he climbed back down the stairs.


	11. Round-up time

**Hey! Sorry for the delay, I realise it's almost two months since my last update. Anyway, hope you all are well and that you enjoy this chapter.**

 **This chapter takes place 1 year after the previous one.**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer. Uno is an actual game and does not belong to me.**

Sleepy was on a brother-hunt. His parents were out shopping and had left him in charge of the house for an hour. The oldest had decided it would be the perfect time to teach his younger siblings the new game he'd learned at school last week. Uno. He didn't consider it to be a complicated game so felt confident about teaching it to his brothers.

Happy and Sneezy were easy to find. They were in the living room watching T.V. "Hey guys." Sleepy greeted, coming in from the kitchen, where he'd spent the last five minutes shuffling the cards. "What you watching?"

"Care Owls." Happy replied, cheerfully, eyes glued to the screen.

"Aren't you sick of that?" Sleepy asked.

"Nope."

The oldest rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Look, do you wanna play a game?"

"Game?" Sneezy parroted, from his place next to Happy.

"What sort of game?" Happy asked, enthusiastically. "Tag? Duck Duck, Goose, Goose? Or how about…"

"It's not that sort of game!" Sleepy snapped in annoyance. "It's called Uno. It's a card game."

"What's a card game?"

"It's a game you play with cards, what else could it possibly be?" Sleepy said in desperation.

"A magic trick!" Happy grinned.

"IT'S NOT A MAGIC TRICK!" Sleepy bellowed. Then he composed himself as he realised Sneezy was tearing up. "I'll show you what it is. Go into the kitchen, sit at the table. The cards are on the table, don't touch them or else." He headed for the stairs.

"Or else what?"

"OR ELSE!" Sleepy snapped before running up the stairs. God his brothers were so irritating sometimes…

"You shouldn't be snapping at Happy." Doc said from the doorway of his room. "He's only little."

"First of all he'd not 'little' he's nearly five, Sneezy's the little one. Secondly, come of it, like you've never been annoyed with him."

Doc folded his arms and said, stubbornly. "Name one time I've been annoyed with him."

"When he broke the project you'd worked on for a month." Sleepy challenged, immediately. "You yelled at him then. Mum had to calm him down afterwards. And dad sent you to bed without tea remember?"

Doc frowned. "What do you want anyway?"

Sleepy grinned, he'd won that round. It was quite nice to get one-up on a genius…

"I want you to come play a game with me."

Doc shuffled his feet. "Well that depends. I am busy." He said with just a touch of self-importance.

"Doing what? Solving world hunger? Inventing time-travel? Replicating the Eifel Tower out of chopsticks?" Doc's frown got deeper at his older brother's snarky/mocking voice.

"Doing homework, actually."

"Homework!? It's Saturday! What the heck are you doing homework for?"

"So I don't have to do it tomorrow." Doc answered in a deadpan manner. "Anyway, what's this game, then?"

"Uno. It's a card game, I think you'll like it. It requires planning and a bit of strategic thinking."

"Oh!" Dreamy suddenly appeared next to Doc, clearly having been eavesdropping. "That's the game everyone's playing at school!"

"Oh." Sleepy said, suddenly disappointed. "Have you already played it then?"

"Y-"

"No." Doc said smoothly, elbowing Dreamy in the side. "No we haven't. We'd love to play it with you though, Sleepy."

"Great!" Sleepy said excitedly, backing down towards the stairs. "I've got the cards set up, so I'm just going to make sure Happy's alright…he's playing to. See you in five!" And he ran back downstairs again.

Dreamy turned to Doc. "What you do that for?" He complained, rubbing his side. "We have played it. Well…I have anyway."

"So have I." Doc said, explaining. "But Sleepy evidently wants to play this game with us, you saw how happy he was. So let's play it, and I mean, face it, it's not like we have anything better to do."

Dreamy nodded. "Fair point. Okay then, let's go."

The two boys went downstairs were Happy was waiting patiently in his chair and Sleepy was plonking Sneezy down on his special high-chair.

"Sneezy's playing?" Doc screwed up his face as Dreamy sat down. "But he's a baby."

"He can still play." Sleepy said, patiently.

"No he can't! How can he put the cards down? And a 1 and three-quarter month old is unlikely to understand the rules of the game, is he? Even if you teach them to him." He said to Sleepy, who rolled his eyes.

"I'm going to put the cards down for him."

"Well then you may as well have two packs! We might as well be playing New Market!"

"Doc! Just sit down, would you? I'm getting old here." Dreamy said, while drawing shapes with his finger on the table.

Doc shot his immediate younger brother a glare before sitting down sulkily.

It was 15 minutes later when Gentle and Watchful came back in, Watchful with an armful of groceries.

"House still upright." Gentle observed as Watchful struggled to shut the door. "House appears to be alright. Children are…somewhere…"

"Shut this door for me, would you Gentle?" Watchful asked, giving up. She did so.

"Are you boys alright?" She asked as she entered the kitchen, Watchful waddling in behind her. "What are you doing?"

"I'm teaching them how to play Uno." Sleepy explained.

"Ah, lovely. Watchful, can you put the kettle on?"

"Sure thing , my dear."

"Who wants tea?"

The game was forgotten after that.


	12. Ill

**Hey! Roxy Goth here. Hope you're all all right. I am currently ill with a cold. This sucks, as I'm sure you know, but on the bright side it did give me an idea for this next chapter…sick kid! Dwarfs anyone?**

 **See chapter one for the disclaimer. This chapter takes place about 8 months after the previous. For those of you who might be trying to work it out, this chapter takes place in May. Anyway, on with the story.**

"This is the problem with having more than one child." Gentle muttered to herself as Watchful stood by the window waiting for a pigeon. "If one of them's sick, they're all sick."

It had started with Sneezy being ill. The Sleepy got it, then Happy, then Doc and finally Dreamy. It was a good job Gentle was a stay-at-home mother now.

Watchful however wasn't a stay-at-home father and so had sent his boss Mr Cranky Dwarf a letter to ask if he could stay at home and look after the family.

"Ah, finally, a response." Watchful said eagerly, grabbing at the poor bird the micro-second it got close enough to the window.

"What does it say?"

"I don't know, Gentle my dear, I haven't read it yet." Watchful said, just a touch crisply. Upstairs Dreamy began coughing violently. With a sigh, Gentle went upstairs to attend to him.

When she got back downstairs Watchfull was furious. "…I give them 14 years of long, hard work and they can't even give me one lousy day of!? It's like working for Scrooge!"

"No joy then?"

"I still have to go in, however they are allowing me to go home an hour earlier and will pay for me to do so, so I suppose that's something. I have to go now, Gentle…"

Gentle sighed. "What am I supposed to do? I've got five sick children here, Watchfull! I can't look after them all on my own…"

"Get Joy over here."

Gentle made a face. "She's part of a hospital, Watchfull. I can't just ask her to come and babysit."

Watchfull crammed his pick-axe into his bag while saying. "It's not babysitting. Tell her what's happened and say you'd really like some medical advice. Heaven knows it sounds like you need it…"

"Gee thanks."

"Well, what do you want me to say? Two minutes ago you were saying you couldn't cope. Look, I really do have to go now. Say goodbye to the boys for me." Watchfull pecked his wife on the cheek.

The minute he left Gentle sighed, wrote a letter and sent the family pigeon to the hospital.

An hour later Joy was outside the house with her bag. "Where are the patients then?"

"Upstairs. Let me fill you in…"

Upstairs in Doc and Dreamys room, Doc was over by the window, having watched Joy arrive. "'Ey, Beamy, bess 'o's here?"

"Who?" His immediate younger brother croaked from his bed.

"I said bess."

Dreamy groaned and pulled the blanket up higher. "Dun wanna bess. Jus' tell me."

"Joy."

"Ugh." Dreamy coughed and reached for the water his mother had left on the nightstand for him. "'illiant. Now we can be boked at with that stick thing…"

"You bean a dermonita." Doc corrected, out of habit, before breaking of into coughs himself.

"Mmm-hmm." Dreamy muttered before drifting off into sleep.

"So let me get this straight." Joy said, patiently after Gentle had finally finished speaking. "Sneezy is sneezing approximately 10 times more than he should, Sleepy is not sleeping, and Happy's not talking and is coughing and sneezing. Dreamy is in a bad mood, has a headache and is also coughing and sneezing and Doc…" She trailed of.

Gentle clicked her tongue before saying. "Doc still has pretty violent coughing fits and the occasional head-ache, but apart from that seems fine. He's taken the opportunity to read up on colds."

Joy smiled as she started up the stairs. "Sounds like a man after my own heart, that one does. Does he want to be a doctor when he's older?"

"Yes, and a scientist, and a teacher and a lawyer. You name it, he wants to be it." Gentle said, smiling softly.

Joy chuckled softly before opening the door of Sleepy's, Happy's and Sneezy's room. "Where's Watchfull, Gentle?"

"Mine."

"Ah. How are we guys?" She said brightly to her patients

"Ugh." Sleepy turned over, so he was facing away from her. Happy didn't say anything and Sneezy sneezed before starting to cry. Sneezy was in his bed and Happy and Sleepy had, at some point since Gentle had last been up, and pushed their beds together.

As Gentle fussed over Sneezy, Joy got her things out her bag. "That good, 'eh? Well you'll be glad to know I'm thrilled to see you." She said brightly. "Who am I starting with?"

"Sneezy if you please." Gentle asked, timidly.

As Joy examined Sneezy, Happy poked Sleepy.

"Sleepy."

"'o way."

"Sleep-ey."

"I said go away!" Sleepy snapped before groaning and putting his hand dramatically on his fore-head. "I can't sleep…I want to sleep…Joy! I can't sleep!" The oldest whined, sitting bolt up in bed and shoving Happy away with un-characteristic abruptness.

Joy immediately turned round. "I know, Sleepy, I know." She said soothingly. "I'm just going to check Happy over, and then I'll come to you, okay?"

As Joy fussed over Happy, Gentle disappeared into Dreamy and Doc's room to check on them. "Everything all right in here, boys?"

" Bonerfull." Dreamy muttered, from under the duvet.

Doc seemed better, sitting up in bed, with a book and a glass of water by his head-stand. "I'm beeling better, danks. Did you dow…"

"No I didn't, dear." Gentle said hurriedly, hearing Sleepy call out from his room.

"I 'avn't dold bou bet!" Doc called after her, before scowering and sinking into his covers. " 'upid darents." He muttered.

"Shut up, Doc." Dreamy whined. "I've got a beadache."

"ave a glass of borter ben."

"I've finished it!" Dreamy burst out, grabbing his pillow and throwing it at Doc who easily caught it and hugged it to his stomach while saying.

"Bell, I didn't dow, bid I? Bhy bidn't you ask for 'nother one?"

"Die didn't dink!"

"Alright now boys, let's settle down, shall we?" Joy said brightly, waltzing into the room. She'd left Gentle with Sleepy to calm him down after he'd got upset from lack of sleep and general illness.

"Do be birst!" Doc said, happily, sitting up in bed further.

After Doc had been checked over, Joy turned to Dreamy who scowled back at her. "Hello there Dreamy, not feeling quite yourself today, are you?"

"Bie 'ave a 'eadache." He whined, rubbing his fore-head as if to illustrate the point. "I beed more Borter."

"You want water?" Joy translated.

"B'ill get bou some!" Doc said, suddenly, sounding quite happy.

Joy whipped round before his feet could touch the ground. "Oh no, little man, you're staying there."

"But I bont do 'elp!" Doc whined.

"Help me by staying there, okay?"

Doc scowled and threw himself back against the wall. Joy mentally sighed before turning back round to be greeted with a still-scowering Dreamy. Geez, she wasn't very popular today…

"Shall we take your temperature them?"

"No!"

Half an hour later, after practically having wrestled the children into co-operating, Joy came back downstairs; explaining to Gentle what to do. "Sneezy'll be fine, he just needs to be checked frequently to make sure his nose doesn't get too blocked. Happy's okay, just keep giving him the cold-relief capsules every couple of hours. Sleepy will be fine as well, just again give him the capsules. They should do the trick, but if he's still not been able to sleep by normal bedtime then give him the tablets we talked about, okay? Just two, mind, and he must drink water with them. He can't eat anything for half an hour after it as well, not that he'll want to, everything will taste like cardboard to all of them now. Dreamys also fine, again, tablets, water. I'd try giving him things to do, otherwise he'll be thinking about how ill he is and how bad he feels and that won't help him. Doc…now, he can't take the tablets because he has problems swallowing them. But give him some cough syrup, he'll be fine. He won't like it, but it won't kill him. And Gentle…" Joy made sure she had the mother's full attention before continuing. "Make sure you get enough rest okay? You and Watchfull, you can't look after the children if you guys aren't well, makes sense?"

"It does." Gentle smiled. "Thank you, Joy."

"Anytime. I'll call in again at the end of the week."

"Bye."

"Adios."


	13. Birthday Part 1

**Hey! I'm back, really sorry for not updating for ages, but I have recently started a new job and have been very busy. Anyway, I'm here now, so on we crack to a very special day…**

 **This chapter takes place three months after the last one. This chapter has been split into two as it was getting quite long.**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

September the 12th. Sleepy's birthday. The big one as far as he was concerned. He was thirteen now. A teenager.

Gentle sighed as she wrapped his present, some hand-knitted pyjamas. Sleepy liked her hand-knitted stuff, always had. Although for how much longer, Gentle wasn't sure. She was dreading the 'teen' years.

The children were in bed, it was just she and Watchfull, who at that moment handed her a cup of tea.

"Nearly done, my dear?"

"Yes. There." Gentle stuck down the last bit of sticky-tape. "Not that it matters, he's just going to tear it open."

Watchfull sighed and rubbed his wife's back in reassuring soft circles. "Yes, but what would be the fun if we just handed it to him? Here's your gift – surprise!" Gentle gave a chuckle. "It wouldn't work, my love. It simply wouldn't work."

"No, I don't suppose it would." Gentle let out another sight before safely stashing the gift in the bottom cupboard. "He's growing up. I have to accept it. Soon they're all going to grow up and…away from me." Her voice broke a little at the end.

Watchfull gave her a reassuring hug. "The kids will always need you, Gentle. You're there mother. There needs will just change over time. And don't forget you've got four other children! Of which the youngest is two years and eight months. It's not like we're exactly running out of children, are we?"

Gentle laughed. "No we're not. You're right, Watchfull. I'm just being silly. Oh…optimistic! Tomorrows a birthday! You've got the bowling booked?"

"All ready, all we need to do is be there on time."

"Wonderful. Watchfull? Thank you." They hugged again.

The next morning Sleepy was up at 8 o clock, which was early for him, considering it was a Saturday.

"Thirteen! Thirteen at last! Mum! Dad!" He threw the door of their bedroom open and switched on the light. "I'm Thirteen!"

Watchfull screwed his face up, eyes adjusting to the sudden assault of light and Gentle buried her head back under the covers. "Are you? Amazing…"

Not that Sleepy even heard him as he was now in Doc and Dreamys room. "Guys get up! I'm thirteen, I'm officially a teenager! You know what this means?"

"You're suddenly going to become very moody, start growing hair in places and generally become a pain to be around?" Doc asked, with fake cheerfulness.

Dreamy laughed at that. "He's gonna become old!"

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are." Dreamy smirked.

Now Doc was smiling. "You're going to be eighteen before you know it. That's old. Then twenty-one, then you're to die of oldness."

"No I'm not! Stop ganging up on me! It's my birthday; I hate it when you two do this! Mum! Dad! Doc and Dreamy are annoying me, tell 'em to stop!"

"Stop annoying your brother." Gentle called. "Go and get your presents for him. Sleepy go downstairs and wait for us."

"Got it!" Sleepy grinned, practically buzzing with excitement, he turned around and marched to the door, only to turn back and stick his tongue out at both younger siblings, who returned the thoughtful gesture.

Watchfull meanwhile had adjusted to the light. "Stop annoying your brother? I' m more concerned that Doc thinks anyone over twenty-one is going to drop dead."

"In his defence he is ten."

"Fair enough. Okay, I'll give him that one. Shall we get up?"

A couple of hours later, after Sleepy had eaten birthday pancakes prepared by Watchfull, and had all his presents, his father handed him a card.

Sleepy looked at it in confusion. "What is it?"

"It's an envelope, I believe the idea is to open it." Doc snarked.

"Doc." Watchfull warned as Sleepy scowled at his immediate younger brother. But aiming to be mature Sleepy decided against kicking his brother under the table/sticking his tongue out at him and instead focused on tearing the envelope open, reading the following words out loud.

 _To our new-teenager._

 _Happy birthday! Hope you've enjoyed your day so far, there's still more to come._

 _As you know you've been dying to go to the new Bowling Ally 'Knock-Out'. Well, you'll be glad to know we've got a lane booked for 1, we'll also be having lunch there._

 _Hope your happy! Love, mum and dad. xxxx_

Sleepy paused, re-read it in his head to make sure he was reading it right, ran it by Doc for double-checking and then, once confirmed it was real threw his arms around first Gentle, then Watchfull.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"No problem son. Get your coats then kids, we're off to Knock-Out!"


	14. Sleepy's birthday, part 2

**Hey! Roxy Goth here. Sorry for the wait. Next up, Knock-Out!**

 **BTW, I don't know if the stuff at the end about sleepwalking and muscle-memory is accurate, but it's the only in-universe explanation I can think f for why in 7D Sleepy sleepwalks and seems to know exactly where he is.**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

"7 pairs of shoes please." Watchfull said, in a dead-pan manner, to the gawky looking boy behind the knock-out shoes counter. "1 small teenagers, 2 small children's, 3 medium children's and two adults, one small, one medium."

Without hesitation the boy got all shoes required and stuck them on the counter. "7 bob please." He said, drawing the words out.

Watchfull muttered under his breath about the stupidity of money while Gentle was helping Sneezy get his shoes on.

Doc, Dreamy and Sleepy had got theirs on, but Happy was struggling. Sleepy saw this and, rolling his eyes a tad, helped his sibling.

Once they were already Sleepy excitedly grabbed Happy and Sneezy's hands and ran them towards the lane.

"DON'T RUN, YOU LOT!" Watchfull bellowed, earning scornful looks from mothers and understanding ones from fathers. "YOU'LL SLIP!"

"Oh, loosen up dad." Sleepy said, grabbing a pencil and pen. "Who wants to tally?"

"I'll do it." Doc said. Sleepy handed the stuff to him.

"I should have just done that, shouldn't I?" Sleepy said to Dreamy who nodded, a tad smugly.

"So who's going first?" Doc asked, noting the pins were in place.

"I will." Gentle stepped forward. "Where are the lighter balls?"

"End of the row" Watchfull told her.

Doc finished drawing the chart and scribbled 'mum' in the first column. "Okay. Whenever you're ready."

Dreamy scoffed. "What is this, school? Go get 'em, mum!"

"Yeah go get 'em!" Happy cheered, jumping up and down.

Gentle smiled fondly before aiming and managing to knock down five pins.

"Nice one, mum." Doc noted, scribbling furiously. "Who's next?"

"Me." Dreamy said, marching up to the balls, and then he paused. "Which one is lighter?"

"This one, sweetie." Gentle handed him one and Dreamy nodded at her, before aiming and managing to take down three pins.

"That was rubbish." Doc said, evenly, writing it down.

Dreamy whirled round, hands on hips. "I'd like to see you do better, numskull!"

"Okay then." Doc said, instantly, handing the notebook to Gentle. "I'll go next."

To Dreamys chagrin Doc knocked down seven pins. The middle child stamped his foot. "Oh, c'mon!"

Doc gave a shrug, smugly taking the notebook of his mother. "What can I say? You've either got it or you haven't. Who's next? Happy?"

"I'll help him." Gentle said, taking her second-youngest by the hand and placing him behind the line. "Okay Happy. Aim…fire!" Happy gave a laugh, pushing the ball with all his might, it ended up going into the gutter.

"…nothing for Happy then." Doc noted, sounding a tad disappointed.

Dreamy rolled his eyes. "I saw that coming."

"Sneezy next." Sleepy announced, walking over to the two year old and picking him up.

Doc scrunched his nose up. "How's he going to manage it?" he asked. "Happy could only just about do it, and he's five."

"Nearly six!" Happy pointed out.

"Five nearly six." Doc corrected.

Sleepy ignored his sibling, selected the lightest ball and wrestled a helper-plastic thing over to the lane.

"Next times Happy's up, we're getting that for him." Watchfull whispered to his wife amazed they hadn't thought of it before. She nodded.

Now Sleepy had got it in position, he looked at the ball on the ground and at Sneezy. "Ugh!" He stomped his foot. "This isn't going to work!"

"What do you want to do?" Doc asked as he and Dreamy walked up.

"I want to get Sneezy to push the ball down, but I can't hold him up, position the ball and keep this thing still." In annoyance Sneezy kicked out then grabbed his foot. "Ow!"

"Okay." Doc said smoothly, elbowing Dreamy while simultaneously glaring across the room at Happy in an attempt to stop them both laughing. "Here's what we'll do. I'll position the bowling ball, you hold Sneezy up and Dreamy." He turned to his immediate younger brother with a Chester cat grin on his face. "Dreamy can hold the plastic thing still."

"Why do I have to!?"

"Because you were laughing."

"Happy was laughing to!"

"I don't care. He's five he's allowed. You're nine."

"Oh, so you get to a certain age and you're not allowed to laugh anymore?"

"Dreamy. Do it."

"He's going to be a scary grown up." Watchfull noted as Dreamy got on the floor. "The college professor everyone hates."

Gentle slapped her beloved husband on his arm lightly. "Shut up, Watchfull. Doc will be a wonderful grown up. They all will be."

Well at the moment no one would have believed that as the soon-to-be-wonderful-grown-ups were squabbling silently among themselves as they tried to get Sneezy in the best position to push the ball. Eventually they managed it and he happily pushed the ball down the ramp, managing to knock two pins over.

"Yeah, definitely doing that for Happy next time." Watchfull reiterated and Gentle nodded in agreement.

"Dad! You're next." Sleepy was suddenly in front of him, handing him a bowling ball.

"Oh right, of course. I actually have to play." Watchfull muttered under his breath as Sleepy eagerly threw him in front of the lane.

"Hold on!" Doc said, as Dreamy held a hand up. "Two points for Sneezy. Dad next. Okay go."

Watchfull aimed, fired and managed to knock down eight pins. "Yes! I'm winning!" He exclaimed before turning round and being met with the simultaneous disapproving glares of both Gentle and Doc. It was scary sometimes how similar those two could be…

"I mean." He smiled brightly. "It's only a game. Quick, Sleepy have your go before I'm your mum and brother kill me."

Sleepy took his stance and took a while trying to decide where to aim the ball. Happy smiled and yelled, helpfully. "You can do it, Sleepy! Try not to fall asleep!"

"Happy!" Gentle shot her son a look. "That is NOT a helpful comment."

Happy pouted while protesting. "But he falls asleep all the time!"

Sleepy rolled his eyes and did his best to block out the sound of his family's discussions behind him. He concentrated, aimed and fired. "I DID IT! I DID IT! I KNOCKED DOWN NINE PINS!"

"Well done, son!" Watchfull congratulated.

"Wasn't a strike though." Doc pointed out, scribbling down the result.

"Neither was yours."

"True." Doc said evenly. "You are winning though."

Eventually the scores where as such, by the end of 10 goes each. Gentle – 47. Dreamy – 52. Doc – 78. Happy – 27. Sneezy – 32. Watchfull – 68. Sleepy – 76.

"You only just beat him though." Dreamy pointed out as they walked back home. During the party afterwards Sleepy had fallen asleep and nearly fell into his slice of cake, thankfully Watchfull had whipped it out from under him. Now their father was holding Sleepy's hand and guiding him down the street. He'd gotton too big to carry about three years ago. Now, at the instruction of Doctor Sleepy-Time they were getting his body used to moving while asleep, the idea being eventually it'd become muscle-memory. However it did take a while, though Sleepy could now walk round the house, sleepwalking, unaided providing nobody had moved anything.

Doc shrugged easily. "You've either got it or you don't, Dreams. Either got it or you don't."


	15. A trip to the farm, part 1

**Hey! I'm back! Okay, so this chapter takes place 5 months after the last one. I've edited some of the earlier chapters, so hopefully the times might make a bit more sense now.**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer and let's go!**

"This… _this_ is the place Dreamy wanted to go for his tenth birthday." Watchfull said in a not-at-all-impressed manner.

"Yes. It does look rather run-down, doesn't it?" Gentle agreed. They were both staring at Farmer William's Fun Farm For Kids. Despite its shabby appearance it had actually only opened two years ago.

"I mean, I didn't even realise he was that keen on animals."

"Well in all fairness, Watchfull, we don't see them interacting with animals much, do we? On account of Sneezy I mean."

"Oh god. This is going to be a nightmare."

Gentle smacked him lightly on his arm. "No, it's going to be fun, Watchfull. You remember that? Fun?"

"Oh very well." They turned round to where there children were standing clustered together outside the gate. They did seem excited, Dreamy and Doc were eagerly examining the map, while Sleepy explaining to Happy about all the animals they were going to see. Sneezy had taken his medication before leaving the house and was just staring around in awe.

"Right children." Gentle said, brightly. "Let's go then, shall we?"

Dreamy ran up to her. "I want to go see the pigs first, mum. Can we, can we, can we?"

"Of course. It's your birthday." As the boys ran to the entrance Watchful whispered to Gentle. "Sneezy's not allergic to pigs then?"

"No. The only ones we need to worry about are squirrels, guinnue-pigs and rabbits."

"So the feed-the-small-animals bit is out the question for him then?" Watchful clicked his tongue. "Shame."

"Mum!" Dreamy hollered from in front of the desk. "You need to pay!"

"I know, dear. I know." Once they'd all got their wristbands they trotted into the field.

"Where are we going?" Sleepy asked, looking around with an air of faint disgust as he held Sneezy's hand.

"The Pig Pen!"

"Where's that?" Sleepy glanced over at Dreamy who shrugged.

Doc answered. "Straight ahead, then left. Round the corner from the Children Play Area."

"Wow!" Happy glanced up at Doc from his place next to Watchfull's side. "How'd you know that? You haven't even got the map with you!"

Doc smiled and said, just a tad smugly. "I have a good memory."

Hearing this Watchful nodded to himself. Doc took after him of course, in that regard.

Five minutes later they were outside the pig pen. "Don't get too close." Gentle said, warningly.

"Why?" Dreamy asked, leaning over to try and get a better look. "They're so cool!"

Next to him Doc rested his arms on the top of the pen, but didn't lean. "Pigs are omnivores."

"Omi-what?"

"Omnivores. They eat both plants and meat. And they're highly protective of their young. See that mother pig?" Doc pointed to where a fat pig was feeding her young.

Dreamy nodded. "Yeah?"

"If you fell in she'd probably take it as a personal offence and try to kill you." Doc said, airily.

Dreamy immediately stopped leaning over so far. "Well, when you put it like that…"

Sleepy meanwhile had picked Happy up so he could see the pigs better. Sneezy was becoming fussy, whinging a little and clasping onto Gentle's hand.

Eventually they moved on to the small animals. Well, nearly all of them did. Watchful elected to stay outside with Sneezy.

"I'll do it, dad." Sleepy had said immediately when Watchful had told them of his intentions.

"No thanks, Sleepy." Watchful responded easily. There was no way he was risking Sleepy dropping of and Sneezy wondering of. The youngest was only three as well!

Pouting a little Sleepy walked inside, grabbing Happy's hand as he did so and grumbling to Doc. "It's so unfair. I bet if it were you he'd let you look after him."

"I don't think so." Doc said, immediately. "Why do you think that?"

"Because you don't have Narcolepsy." Sleepy felt Happy pulling and let go if his hand allowing the second youngest to run, laughing, to where Dreamy was stoking a rabbit.

"I don't think that's all the reason…" Doc said, though he sounded a little doubtful. Sleepy picked up on it.

"You see? Even you don't think so! I hate having Narcolepsy! It SUCKS!" After that outburst Sleepy stormed off to the other end of the small enclosure, ignoring Gentle's cries to come back.

Doc sighed before wondering over to Dreamy and Happy.

"Is he alright?" Dreamy asked, in concern, as Doc was handed a rabbit by one of the helpers.

"Thank you." Doc said, before turning to his brother. "He's fine. He's just a little upset because dad won't let him look after Sneezy."

"Why won't he?" Happy asked, hugging his rabbit tight to his chest. "Sleepy's good at looking after Sneezy."

"Because this place is busy." Dreamy explained. "Dad's probably worried Sneezy'll get lost. I don't blame him. Sneezy does wonder of a lot."

"He's not as fast as me though!" Happy chuckled.

Doc smiled, fondly. "You are three years older than him, Happy."

"So?"

"Never mind."

Half an hour later the group was wondering up to get some food as it was near one now.

"Can I have anything I want?" Dreamy asked excitedly.

"Within reason, I think." Watchful said, looking at his wife for confirmation, who nodded.

"Great! I want a cheeseburger with cheesy chips and a milkshake!"

"That actually sounds quit nice. Can I have that to?"

"Of course you can Doc, Sleepy what do you want?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Sleepy." Watchfull said, warningly. "Your mother asked you a question, answer it please. What do you want?"

"Something I can't drown in if I fall asleep." Sleepy spat before pushing past his parents and flouncing of towards the café.

"SLEEPY!" Watchful bellowed. He turned to Gentle, who looked very worried. "Don't worry my dear; it's just the teen years, that's all. I'll go get him." Her husband sent her reassuring smile before turning round and bellowing. "SLEEPY! SLEEPY DWARF, GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!" Before clicking his tongue in annoyance and going after him.

Meanwhile Gentle looked concerned. "Oh I do hope he's alright…"

Dreamy was fairly annoyed. "This is so stupid." He hissed to Doc. "It's my birthday! Why can't Sleepy be annoying at home?" To his further annoyance his immediate older brother just shrugged.

Then Sneezy saw something. "Ice-cream!"

"What, darling?"

"Ice-cream truck!"

Gentle looked across the field, spotted the truck and nodded. "Very nice, dear."

"I want one!" The youngest demanded.

"Please." Gentle said, sternly. "I want one, please."

"I want one please!"

"Yeah mum, can we?" Dreamy asked, brightening up.

As her children spoke excitedly, Gentle laughed. "Okay darlings yes, after lunch we'll buy you all one."

Doc, Dreamy and Happy all exchanged looks of delight. Sneezy however wasn't so happy. "I WANT ONE NOW!" He screamed.

Gentle looked apologetically around, before saying firmly. "You can have one after you've has your lunch, Sneezy."

"I WANT ONE NOW! NOW!"

"Don't be silly, Sneezy." Gentle said, her usual cheeriness gone. "I told you, you can have one later."

"I. WANT. ONE. NOW!"

"No." Their mother said, simply.

Sneezy screamed and threw himself on the floor, hitting his fists against the gravel and crying something awful. Passers-by were glancing with mixed looks of pity, annoyance and sympathy.

"Sneezy get up. I said get up. Get up now! Don't make me count to three…"

The remaining three children were having mixed reactions, Happy not liking to see people upset had started crying as well. Doc was glancing around and slightly edging away from the scene as if trying to pretend he didn't know these mad people. Dreamy was by now furious.

He went over to his mum and pulled at her sleeve. "Can we have lunch?"

"What? In a minute, Dreamy. Let me calm Sneezy down…"

"Ugh! In a minute, in a minute, in a minute!" The middle child threw his hands in the air and stormed off.

Doc looks after him before turning to Happy. "Happy, you stay here okay? Stay with mum. I'm going after Dreamy. Tell mum we'll be back soon, okay?" And with that he hurried after his brother, yelling his name.


	16. Dreamy's Birthday take 2

**Hey! Roxy Goth here, sorry for the delay, thanks for reading and on with the story!**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

Doc hurried after his brother, having given up yelling his name. Seeing Dreamy stop at the pig sty and lean on the surrounding wooden gate the directly older brother clicked his tongue in annoyance before going over.

"What are you doing? Mums going to kill you."

"I don't care." Dreamy snapped, tapping his fingers on the wooden fence.

"Sure you don't." They stood in silence a bit until the younger spoke again. "It's just irritating! This was my day, it's only one day a year the family's meant to revolve around me and Sleepy's annoyed dad and Sneezy's annoyed mum. It's only you and Happy who haven't done anything."

"Well. Thanks for that. And you know they don't mean to, right? Sneezy's too young to properly think about anything outside of his own interests…"

"In other words 'it's all about me'. What's Sleepy's excuse? Surely the first teenager of the family should be setting the rest of us 'babies' an example."

Doc winced at the unusual bile in Dreamys voice before hesitatedly saying. "He's just annoyed. I think. That dad won't let him look after Sneezy…"

"So? Who cares? Can't he have yelled at dad tomorrow?"

"I think his emotions got the better of him…"

"There you go again, excuses, excuses, excuses!" They stood in silence a little more, Dreamy having now switched to drawing circles on the wood. Doc was just wondering if he should leave when the younger spoke again.

"I s'pose I'm overreacting, aren't I?" Doc didn't respond. Dreamy carried on. "I s'pose I should have known that in our family something was gonna happen!" He flung himself of the gate and sat down on the ground. Doc sighed before joining him.

"Yeah. Something always happens in our family." No response. "Do you want me to leave? I could go back to mum."

"No. It's alright. You can stay."

"Thanks. So…mum's pregnant. Again."

"I know that Doc! She told us last week…"

"How you feelin' bout it?"

Dreamy scrunched his nose up. "Alright, I sup-pose."

"Do you want it to be a boy or a girl?"

"I don't care. Neither."

Doc leaned back against the gate, pondering how he was going to word his answer. His brother was definitely going to stop sulking if he had anything to do with it. "I think a baby sister would be quite nice."

Dreamy looked over at him in surprise. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. Though I must admit I'd feel sorry for her having four older brothers."

"Why? We're awesome!" The pair of them burst out laughing catching the attention of a few people before Doc asked.

"So do you want a baby sister to?"

"Nah. I want a baby brother."

"Really? You have two!"

"I know. I know how to deal with brothers. Girls are weird."

Doc rolled his eye fondly. "Whatever. Not long to go now. It's due in August. That's-"

"Let me work it out!" Dreamy said, suddenly, looking more animated. "You always work it out. August, February now. March, April, May, June, July, August. Five months."

"Six, you need to include August."

"I do?"

"Yeah! We don't know when in August it's gonna come! Potentially it could be the 31st, meaning that we're waiting the whole of August."

"Yeah, but it could also be the first which means we wait no time at all – so there!"

"Well, we'll see."

"Yeah."

"Doc! Dreamy!" Both boys looked up to see their mother carrying a subdued Sneezy and a still-somehow-cheerful-Happy towards them. "How many times have I told you boys never to run off!? You could get lost?"

Doc glanced around. "In this place? It's hardly busy."

Seeing his mother looked ready to scream Dreamy decided to step in. "It's not Doc's fault, mum. I went off. He just followed me."

"Yes, why did you go of? I told you to wait a minute!"

"I was annoyed! …I didn't think."

"No clearly." Gentle sighed. "Well, the problem has been resolved, you two have been found, which was the important thing, and your father and brother are waiting for us at the café. C'mon, let's go."

Both boys jumped up and went over to their mum.

"So just to clrifly?" Dreamy began.

"Clarify." Doc corrected.

"Yeah that. Are we getting ice cream or not?"


	17. Waiting and waiting and waiting

_**Hey! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. This chapter takes place 5 months after the last one, it's now August.**_

 _ **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**_

Doc was sitting in the corridor, kicking his feet against the floor and counting prime numbers in his head. He had to do something to keep himself entertained. His mother had gone into labour, again, and no one was talking to each other.

Sleepy was at the other end of the row of seats Doc was on, with Sneezy on his knee. The very-nearly 14 year old was bouncing his brother gently, while glancing absently-mindly at a wall. His youngest brother was loving it, squealing with delight.

Opposite him Dreamy was looking after Happy, reading him a book. They were both clearly engrossed in what they were doing.

His father was pacing up and down in worry, occasionally stopping to check none of his sons had wondered of. "Sleepy, stop bouncing him." Watchful barked at his oldest, causing Dreamy and Happy to finally look up.

Sleepy frowned. "He likes it."

"I don't care, stop it."

Sleepy's frown got deeper as he waited for his dad to turn away. When he did he started jiggling Sneezy round a bit more. Doc smiled softly watching the scene, then Sneezy laughed and Watchful whipped back round.

"RIGHT!" He bellowed, causing the oldest to nearly drop Sneezy. "That's it! Give him to me."

"But dad-!"

"No."

"But-!"

"Now."

"A-A-ACHOO!" Sneezy suddenly let out a sneeze that caused the oldest to jump backwards a bit, whacking his head against the wall.

"Ow…" He whined, rubbing his head.

"If you hadn't got him so excited that wouldn't have happened." Watchful said, bluntly, picking Sneezy up and walking up and down with him.

The family sat in silence for another five minutes until Joy poked her head round the door. "Watchful? Gentle's asking for you."

"Oh, right. Er…" He looked down at his youngest, who blinked back up at him.

"I'll take Sneezy if you like. And Happy actually, they can both go to the play area."

"Okay then. Happy! Go with Joy - and be good! The rest of you, try not to destroy anything, Doc, I'm looking at you."

Doc glanced at his dad. "Why? What do you think? I've hardly got my tool box with me. More's the pity." He added looking around the hospital. "This place could do with a few things fixing."

"And cleaning." Sleepy murmured. "That's why Sneezy sneezed, there's so much dust, look at this." He ran a finger around the border at the bottom of the wall. A thick layer of dust came off with it. "That's dead bad, that is, dad. Dad. Dad?" He looked over only to see that Watchful had disappeared into the delivery room and Joy had taken Happy and Sneezy. "Charming. Abandon me while I'm talking why don't you? Stupid parents…" As the oldest continued muttering to himself, Dreamy sighed, got up and sat next to Doc.

"How long do babies take to appear?"

"It's called labour, Dreams, and it varies. 2 hours to 22 hours."

"How long has mum been in there?"

"I dunno. Sleepy?" Doc called over to his brother who ceased his muttering and looked at them.

"What?"

"How long has mum been in labour?"

"Erm…" He checked his watch. "Two and a half hours. I'm gonna go mad. Why do we have to be here? It's not like anything's happening."

"Come and sit next to us, Sleep. You're at the other end of the world up there." Dreamy said.

Sleepy moved next to Doc while still talking. "I can look after you lot, easy. I know the house like the back of my hand, as long as you two idiots don't move anything, I'll be fine."

"We're not idiots, Doc's smarter than you!" Dreamy shot back.

"Now, now children, break it up." Doc said, in mock imitation of Gentle's voice, seeing Sleepy was going to retaliate.

"Are you boys alright out here?" Turning the three of them saw Nurse Joy looking at them in concern.

"Yeah, we're fine." Sleepy said, smiling at her.

Doc gave her a wave. "I'm keeping an eye on them!"

She smiled before ducking back into the room. After making sure she was gone the oldest elbowed Doc hard.

"Ow! Sleepy…"

"Well, wha'did you say that for? You sound like you're in charge."

"I am if you fall asleep."

"I'm not going to bloody fall asleep!"

"You're not s'pose to say that!" Dreamy pointed dramatically at Sleepy. "Mum said!"

"You tell her, your dead! It's not even that bad a word"

"Yes it is!"

"No it isn't! I can think of loads more!"

"Like?"

"Like…"

"Break it up!" Doc snapped, putting his hands out. Lowering his voice he said to Sleepy. "If you want to prove you're responsible, arguing with a ten year old isn't going to help you know."

"Oh shut up."

"Or an eleven year old." Doc snarked.

Sleepy shot his brother an irritated glare and the three of them sat in silence for another ten minutes.

"What do you want the baby to be?" Doc broke the silence.

"Non-existent." Sleepy said immediately.

"Sleepy!"

"What? We can't afford another sibling, boy or girl."

"Actually we can. Jewel mining pays better than you'd think it does. All the jewels get transferred into cash. And dad and his team get a lot of jewels."

"While risking cave-ins yes."

"Oh, shut up Sleepy."

"Why are you in such a … funk?" Dreamy said, curiously.

Sleepy paused, he actually couldn't think of an answer. "I just am."

"It's hormones." Doc told Dreamy.

"Will you shut up!?" The oldest snapped. "Geez, can you not be a show off for one minute!?"

There was another heavy silence. Then Dreamy spoke.

"I want it to be a boy. Girls are weird."

"I'd quite like a sister." Doc announced.

"I don't care." Sleepy said, then he glanced over at Doc and saw his reproachful look. "Alright, I'd go for a girl. There's enough boys in our family."

"Happy wants a girl as well."

"Sneezy wants a brother." Dreamy informed them, importantly.

The oldest shot him a glance. "How'd you know?"

"I heard him telling mum."

"Fair enough."

There was another silence, then Joy appeared.

"You boys can come in now." She announced, Dreamy ran in straight away, while Sleepy, in a sudden pang of conscious pulled Doc back.

"I didn't mean it."

Doc looked at him like he'd grown two heads. "Mean what?"

"That you're a show off. Well you are, but I know you don't mean it deliberately, like."

Doc raised an eyebrow. "Thanks?"

"Oh c'mon, do you know what I mean or don't you?"

"You love me no matter how annoying I am?"

"Exactly."

"Good. I love you too. Now we've got that out the way shall we go see what Mother Nature has blessed us with?"

"Sure thing, Mr Talks-like-the-eighteen-hundreds"

"Boys, are you coming?" Watchful called, sounding a lot less stressed now.

"Go on, get in there." Sleepy grinned, jokingly bopping Doc on the head.

"Which is it then?" Doc said, upon walking into the small room.

"Just come straight to the point why don't you?" Watchful said, smiling.

"Leave him be, Watch. Boys, meet your new brother."

"Oh. Another brother." Doc sounded disappointed, and then he shrugged. "I can live with that."

"Thanks, I'm so glad you give us your blessing." Watchful joked, rolling his eyes.

"I said it'd be a boy, I said!" Dreamy was jumping up and down. "Didn't I say!?"

"Yeah you did, Dreams."

"What's his name then?" Sleepy asked, getting them all back on track.

The parents looked at each other. "We were thinking…Bashful." Gentle said, softly.

"Why?"

"Take a proper look at him." Watchful said. Sleepy looked at him like he was mad. "Go on, he won't bite."

Shrugging the oldest leaned over the bed and looked at the baby. Said baby immediately screwed his face up and seemed to be trying to turn away. "Oh…"

"Yes, so what do you think?"

Sleepy gave a grin. "I think it's perfect." He announced.

"Great, where are Happy and Sneezy?"

"Play-Pen."

"Okay, Watchful, go get them, would you?"

Watchful hurried out, eager to introduce the children to their new baby brother. He smiled to himself, times like this he loved his life.


	18. New Years

**Hey! Hope you all had a good new year and have got fully adjusted to the fact it's 2017. I got the idea for this chapter on New Year's Eve, so guess which month it is?**

 **Also, on another note, I've recently started writing for Animaniacs, so if any of you are interested feel free to check it out.**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

It was precisely four hours till midnight, Watchful noted, looking at the clock. They'd been at Joy's house for twenty minutes. It had taken half that time for his boys to get bored and want to go home.

He sighed and took a swig of his drink, then decided he'd better go and find his wife. She probably needed a little break from little Bashful, who was now just over four months old.

He found her talking to a couple of Joy's friends who were crooning over the newest arrival.

"Alright, dear?" he asked, appearing at her side.

"Fine." Gentle said cheerily. "Here hold Bashful for a moment while I make sure the boys have eaten something…" Handing the baby over she strode of.

Watchful nodded awquadly at the four women he didn't know before looking down at Bashful, who just blinked up at him innocently.

Gentle meanwhile had located Happy easy enough, mainly due to fact he was in the same room as her, at the other end of it, playing with some of the other children who had also been dragged along. She wasn't exactly sure what they were playing but it seemed o involve a lot of screaming, running and ducking though people's legs.

She managed to catch hold of the younger of her middle child as he ran past. "Happy, are you alright, dear?"

"Fine mum." He smiled, though she noticed his eyes were glued on his new friends.

"Have you eaten anything?"

"I'm not hungry."

"You must be, darling, you've not eaten anything since lunch."

"Mu-um!" Happy giggled. "I'm fine, 'onest'y!

"Well yes but…"

"Stormy! Wait up!" Happy ducked out from his mother's arms and ran after his friends.

Gentle sighed. Hopefully she'd have better luck with her other kids.

Going into the hall she bumped into Joy. "Oh, Gentle, are you looking for someone?"

"Yes, any of my sons apart from Bashful and Happy."

"Well, I can't help with Doc and Dreamy but Sneezy ad Sleepy are in the garden."

"Okay thanks."

Sure enough there they were, sitting on a bench playing a game of I-Spy or trying to at least.

"Sneezy, how many times do I have to tell you? You only meant to spy things I can see!"

"You can see it"

"No I can't!"

"Can!"

"Ca-! Oh…" Sleepy buried his head in his hands. Gentle drew back, eavesdropping on this conversation. "Sneezy tell me, where in this garden do you see an elephant?"

"Up there!" Sneezy pointed.

Sleepy followed his brother arm. "In the sky? Don't be…wait…you mean clouds don't you?"

Sneezy nodded, smiling widely.

Sleepy groaned. "I said in the garden!"

"The skies in the garden!"

"No the sky is the sky and it's above the garden that's why Joy said do you want to go into the garden and not 'do you want to wonder onto the clouds."

"Boys." Gentle stepped forward. "Have you eaten anything?"

"No." Sneezy said at the same time as Sleepy went.

"Is there food?"

"Yes, there's a buffet in the kitchen."

"Alright!" Smiling widely Sleepy leapt of the bench then turned round to help Sneezy down. "Let's go, Sneeze!"

As soon as his feet were on the ground Sneezy ran off. "Race you!"

"Hey! No fair!" Sleepy said, jogging behind him.

Smiling fondly Gentle went back inside to be met with Joy. "I found Doc and Dreamy they were upstairs." She said nodding over to where the boys where leaning against the wall.

"Thanks Joy. Boys! What were you doing upstairs?"

"I got bored." Dreamy said. "So I went to find Doc."

"I went upstairs cos I don't like the noise." Doc said with just a touch of stubbornness.

Gentle clicked her toungue softly. Times like this she did worry about her second-oldest. It wasn't even partiulary noisy. "Have you two eaton anything?"

"No, why is there food?" Dreamy asked, eagerly.

"Yes in the living room."

"Alright!" Dreamy ducked past her and ran for the living room.

Doc started to go as well, but Gentle caught him just before he got past her. "Doc, can I ask you a favour?"

"Sure."

"Can you get Happy to eat something?"

"I can try."

"Good lad."

She followed her son through the door and as soon as that happened Watchful dumped a crying Bashful in her arms. "Really Watchful?"

Watchful flapped his hands. "I did try and quiet him but he wants his mother."

Gentle observed the baby. "No, he wants feeding."

"Yeah, like I said his mother."

Gentle shot her husband a look before carrying the baby upstairs.

Doc meanwhile had managed to corner Happy. "What do you want Doc?" the eight year old said.

"Have you eaten anything yet?

"No-o."

"Why not?"

"I'm not hungry!" As he said this Happy's stomach gave a loud rumble.

Doc raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Oh…shut up. I'm having fun!"

"Think of it this way, Hap." Doc laid his hand on his brothers shoulder. "The sooner you eat the sooner you can gte back to having fun, this time without everyone coming up and bothering you."

"I suppose…"

"Makes sense, yes?"

"Yes."

"Okay then, let's go!" And with that Doc steered his brother over to the buffet table.

By 9 o'clock everyone had eaten and Happy went back to playing. Sleepy and Sneezy went back outside and Doc and Dreamy disappeared into a corner.

As Gentle was sitting in a chair and deciding whether 9:30 was too early to go back one of Joy's friends, Precious, came over to her.

"How old is he?" She asked, nodding at Bashful.

"Just four months a couple of days ago." Gentle said, smiling softly.

"Lovely, you've got six boys haven't you? How old are they?"

"Happy, who's over there playing with the Tokien's children is 8. Doc and Dreamy are on that seat there. Dreamys ten, though he'll be 11 next month and Doc's 11 now. Outside are Sleepy and Sneezy. Sleepy's the oldest he'd 14 and Sneezy's just turned four a couple of weeks ago."

"Lovely! They all seem very nice boys."

"They are."

"Do you want a drink, dear?" Watchful asked, appearing next to Precious.

"No thank you. Watchful, can we go soon?"

"Go?"

"Bashful's clearly tired." She said, nodding to the sound-asleep child in her arms. "Doc's sick of the place and so's Dreamy and I think if Sleepy goes through one more round of I-Spy he'll scream."

"Fair enough. I'll find Joy and make our excuses to her and you round up the boys."

"Okay. Happy! Dear, we're going! Happy!"

"We're going? Okay!" Happy flung himself at him mother and latched onto her arm.

Dreamy appeared at her other elbow. "We're going? Good. This place is irritating."

"I agree with Dreamy. Why do people have to be so loud?" Doc said, glancing round the room with obvious distaste.

Once she'd rounded up Sleepy and Sneezy the dwarf family left.

"Just to clarify." Watchful said to his wife as they walked down the street. "When the kids are in bed we are staying up till ,midnight, right?"

"Oh yes, definitely."


	19. Happy's birthday

_**Hey, I'm back! Sorry for the delay, life eh? Okay, this chapter takes place in October. BTW, Happy Mother's Day for Sunday.**_

 _ **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer**_ _._

Happy woke up feeling more excited than usual. It took him all of thirty seconds to work out why. It was October the 2nd, his birthday. He was nine years old.

Feeling a surge of excitement he leapt out of bed and started shaking Sneezy awake. "Sneeze, Sneezy, wake up!"

"Hmm." Sneezy snuffled a bit before coughing and sitting up. He wasn't ill, but had to clear his sinuses in the morning.

"Guess what? It's my birthday!" Happy clapped his hands together before breaking into a jaunty tune. "B-B-B-B-B-BIRTHDAY! Oh, I'm so happy, It's my birthday. Nine today, no I won't whine today, because I am nine to-day!" He spun round before resting his eyes on his younger brother who looked confused. "I'll work on the words."

"Two things." Sleepy said, sitting up slowly and rubbing his eyes. "One, they're called lyrics, two it's eight o'clock! Can we not have a bit longer…" He put his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes.

"Nope!" Happy bounced over and shook his oldest brother's shoulder. "C'mon Sleepy, get up!" Sleepy gave a grunt of acknowledgement but didn't move.

Happy sighed. "You know the sooner you get up the sooner you can go back to sleep." He pointed out.

"Fine, I'll get up, just go bother someone else."

"Alrighty!" And with that Happy skipped out the room.

Sleepy smiled softly as he heard his mother and father's protests as Happy presumably jumped on them. Dragging himself out of bed he went over to Sneezy's bed and drew back the cover. "C'mon you, up. Happy's not going to let you go back to sleep and you need to have your Flonase. C'mon, up."

Two minutes later Sleepy had gotton his younger brother fully out of bed and was on route to the bathroom with him when he bumped into his father.

"Alright then Sneezy, you need your medication." Watchful announced, smiling down at his son.

"I was going to do it." Sleepy said.

Watchful smiled a tad patronisingly. "Thank you Sleepy, but I think I'll do it…"

"Why can't I? I know what to do." And he did, he had the instructions memorised.

"He needs to be supervised by an adult, Sleepy." Watchful explained, not for the first time.

"I'm fifteen! I'm going to be sixteen next year, then I'll be an adult."

"You'll be old enough to drink, Sleepy, that's all. You're not an official adult until you're eighteen. So until then either myself or your mother will be supervising Sneezy." On seeing his sons downhearted face, Watchful added as gently as he could. "You're not the only one Sleepy, it'd be exactly the same if one of the others was the oldest."

As Gentle disappeared into Doc, Dreamy and Bashful's room and Happy ran downstairs, Sleepy said, spitefully. "I bet you, you wouldn't say that if I didn't have Narcolepsy."

"Not every rule we make is a direct result of your having Narcolepsy, Sleepy!" Watchful snapped, losing his temper. Then he took a deep breath, took Sneezy by the hand and led him into the bathroom to help administer his medicine.

"Sleepy, dear." The oldest turned to be met with his mother, who was holding Bashful in her arms. "It's Happy's birthday, can you please try and not argue with your father? Or anyone for that matter? Please, for me?"

Sleepy nodded and his mother smiled before descending down the stairs with Bashful pulling at her hair.

"Shall we get started then?" Doc said, from the doorway of his room. "Have you got Happy's present?"

"Not with me no…"

"Well maybe you should do that instead of arguing with father." His immediate younger brother said, snarkliy.

Sleepy declined to answer instead going back into his room and retrieving Happy's present.

Within ten minutes the whole family, including Watchful and Sneezy were sat around the table. "So who's present do you want to open first, dear?" Gentle asked Happy.

"Erm…yours and dads."

"Alright then, Watchful?"

"On it, love." Watchful got up and returned with a square parcel which he handed to Happy, who in turn tore it of excitedly.

"Ooh, a book!" He moved to put it aside.

"Why don't you actually look at it, Happy." His dad suggested.

His second-middle son immediately took the book back and looked at the cover. "Guitar for beginners…wait, you're getting me guitar lessons!?"

"We are."

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Happy leapt of the chair and threw his arms around first him mum and then his dad. "I thought you couldn't afford the lessons?"

"That was ages ago, we've been saving since then." Watchful said airily.

Gentle added. "It took a while, what with Grumpy's Piano, Organ and Singing lessons, Doc's Singing, Cello and Lute lessons and Sleepy's Singing and Lute lessons, and your singing lessons but we managed it." It was a tradition that the children started learning to sing when they were six.

"Now, Happy, you might had noticed that there's no guitar. Because your birthday is close to Christmas we thought we'd get you the guitar for Christmas. So you can practice some of the songs on either Doc's or Sleepy's Lute, if you want…"

"You can practice on mine, I don't mind." Doc said. "Just try not to damage it."

"Same here." Sleepy added.

"Brilliant! Thanks! So, who's next?"

"Here, open ours." Doc handed his brother two separate parcels. "The one with the bow is mine and the other's Dreamy's."

"They go together, so you'll be able to guess what the other one is. So it doesn't matter who's you open first."

"I'll open yours." Happy announced tearing of the paper. "Ooh, coulered pencils!"

"Bet you can guess what mine is then." Doc said, smiling.

"Paper!" Happy exclaimed one he'd wrestled the paper of. "Yay! Now I can do more drawing!"

"Mine next, mine next!" Sneezy pulled at his older brothers sleeve.

The younger blonde laughed. "Alright then Sneezy, simmer down. Now let's see, ooh, nice wrapping paper."

"Mummy helped me with it."

Happy shot his mother as smile. "I'd be careful opening it, Hap." She advised.

Nodding the blonde carefully edged the paper of, revealing a pen. "Ooh, what's this Sneezy?"

"A towntin' pen."

"A fountain pen." Gentle corrected.

"A thowtin' pen."

"Close enough." Watchful said.

"Did mummy help you buy this?" Happy asked Sneezy, who nodded eagerly.

Gentle gave a little chuckle. "Well, you did say you needed a new pen, Happy."

"Thank you, Sneeze!" He gave his younger brother a hug.

Sleepy cleared his throat before handing Happy another, larger, square parcel. "Here you go. Hope you like it, it's home-made, so it might look at little terrible."

"Brilliant sales pitch." Doc said, sarcastically. "I bet he really wants to open it now."

"I really do!" The younger boy tore the wrapping paper of, before inhaling sharply . "Wow…"

"What is it?" Dreamy leaned over Happy's shoulder. "Wow, you made this, Sleep?"

Sleepy nodded as Doc got up to inspect it.

"I take back any concerns I might had had. This is brilliant!"

"Can we see it?" Gentle asked.

Once they had it, Watchful eyes went a little wider in shock. It was a plaque with a ribbon through the top, clearly designed to hang somewhere, carefully engraved were the words 'It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living." Underneath were the words. 'This quote came into effect from the moment you were born.' Then underneath that. 'Happy birthday, Happy. Love Sleepy.'

Watchful bit back a lump and handed the plaque back to the birthday boy, who hugged it. "Thank you, Sleepy!"

"The quotes from F. Scott Fitzgerald, the rest is all me." Sleepy said, eyes dropping a tad.

"And he's of." Doc said, fondly.

The rest of Happy's birthday was spent watching an orchestral performance in Jollywood town centre, who were actually there to celebrate Princess Delightful 6 months of life, but Watchful figured they wouldn't know or mind.

Later on, after Doc had been put to bed, Watchful went to have a word with his eldest son. "Sleepy, do you have a minute?"

Sleepy, who was doing precisely nothing, shrugged. "Sure."

"That was a good plaque you made. Actually it was better than good, it was great. Happy's put it on the door."

"I'm glad he likes it."

"So…how did you make it?"

"In D.T. I've been working on it since August. I told Miss Rhombus, you know her? Yeah, I told her I wanted it made in time for Happy's birthday and she agreed to supervise me."

"Supervise you how?" Really, Watchful should have known this, Sleepy had been attending his current special school since he was fourteen.

"She stand over me and if she sees I'm falling asleep she whips whatever I happen to be using at the minute away from me so I don't injure myself. Mmm, I was going to paint it, the plaque I mean, but it looked nice and I didn't want to risk falling asleep and ruining it. I still haven't got the hang of fine motor skills while asleep." He let out a low chuckle.

Watchful smiled. "I-er. I just want to let you know, I'm proud of you. If you can do that already, with supervision, then you should be alright to supervise Sneezy's medication. Myself or your mother will show you how to do it, and you'll observe for a month or two before giving it a go. And even then we'll still come in with you, just in case anything goes wrong…but you should be alright. You will have to wait until your sixteen though at least, I'm serious about that."

"Really? Are you serious?" Sleepy got up and flung his arms round his father. "Thank you!"

Watchful gave him a brief hug back before patting him on the back. "Okay, there we go now. You can let go now, Sleepy. Hey, maybe when you're eighteen I can teach you how to use the mining tools! What do you think about that?"

"It sounds brilliant!"


	20. Home Alone Part 1

_**Hey, I'm back, thanks to Imagonista for reviewing the last chapter, glad you're liking the family feels.**_

 _ **Anyway, this chapter takes place at the end of May in the next year.**_

"Sleepy." Watchful stood in the doorway of his oldest sons room. "I need a word with you."

Sleepy, who was trying to concentrate on his homework and failing miserably, sighed and put his pen down. "Go for it. I can't concentrate anyway. I need a nap."

Watchful's lips twitched into a smile before he maintained his serious composure. "As you know you're mother has taken Bashful to a play session with the Smiths son…"

"Mmm-hmm."

"And I _thought_ I was going to be able to stay here and have a nice relaxing Sunday of, but apparently not. Mr Cranky wants me down the mine, apparently nine to five six days a week isn't enough."

Sneezy crinkled his nose as he stifled a yawn. "You guys work too hard."

"Tell him that. Anyway, remember a couple of months ago I said I was going to start giving you more responsibility?"

His oldest perked up. "I can give Sneezy his Flonase?"

Watchful sighed. "If I am not back by after tea, then yes, you can." He turned to leave and then turned back. "By the way, if you fall asleep Doc's in charge."

"Doc?" Sneezy frowned. "Great, just what I need. Have you told him?"

"I have, I've told everyone the plan, now I've got to go otherwise Mr Cranky will start docking my pay. Bye, son!"

"Yeah, bye." Sneezy got up, giving up on homework for now and waved his dad of from the front door. He gave a laugh as he shut the door. His first time in charge of the whole house for more than an hour.

"Is dad gone?" Doc asked, standing in the living room doorway.

"Yep, gone for a good couple of hours. And mum won't be back till five. I'm in charge for…"

"Six hours."

"I know that, I can add." Sneezy said, sharply.

"Oh, how are you getting on with your maths homework?" Doc asked, with just a twinge of mockery.

"I'm getting there. It's hard you know."

"I bet you I could do it."

"Yeah, well thankfully your stupid school refuses to put you any more classes ahead than two."

Doc shrugged. "I'm still doing a fourteen-fifteen years olds workload instead of a twelve to thirteen."

"If you ego gets bigger, it's going to need its own planet. Where are Dreamy, Hap and Sneezy anyway?"

"Kitchen, doing arts and craft."

Sleepy nodded. "Let's get in their and supervise before Happy glitter-fies the whole kitchen."

"Glitter-fies not a word."

"Oh. Shut up Doc."

For the next hour and a half they supervised Arts and Craft. When the two youngest got bored Sleepy made lunch.

After ten minutes had passed and there was still no sign of said lunch Doc disappeared into the kitchen to check on his brother. When he got in their he was alarmed to see Sleepy asleep and holding a knife in his hand.

Doc leapt forward and gently prised the knife from Sleepy's hand before putting it on the side and giving his brother one of the sandwiches in one hand and another in the other hand. "Sandwiches." He told him. "Left hand, yours, right hand mine. Be careful with them. Go." He stepped away and Sleepy just started walking, even moving his hands in when he passed through the door to avoid spilling the food everywhere.

Doc watched him go before taking Sneezy's food in one hand, took Happy's in the others and went back to the table. "Sleepy told you to put this lot away, guys." He said, seeing the table was still covered in glitter.

"We moved the papers and the crayons." Dreamy said, indicating the sideboard where they'd just piled everything on.

"Not properly you haven't. After lunch you're moving that stuff." Doc said, putting Sneezy's and Happy's food in front of them. "And I don't know what you think you're doing with that sandwich, it's mine."

"Sleepy gave it to me."

"I don't care."

"But-!"

"Look at it! It's ham, you don't like ham, you like cheese."

"Mmm." Dreamy sat back. "Where's mine then?"

"Use your intelligence, Dreams, where do you think it's gonna be?"

"Kitchen."

"Give the boy a round of applause!" Happy and Sneezy did so. "Not literally! Stop it!"

"I'm going." Dreamy got up and retrieved his food from the kitchen.

They sat in silence and ate. After they'd finished Sleepy woke up. "Hmm. What's gone on? Who died?"

"No one died, don't be stupid." Doc said.

"What's eating you?"

"Nothing."

"Whatever. Oh, I've got homework. Dang it. What time is it?"

"Twelve-thirty."

"Great. Ugh, I need to supervise. Hmm."

Dreamy looked at him and said. "Why don't you bring your homework down here and supervise us that way?"

"Good idea, Dreamy." Sleepy got up and went upstairs.

"Can we go play?" Sneezy asked, bouncing in his chair.

"Sure go." Doc said, waving an arm.

Happy and Sneezy ran off to the living room. Dreamy however stayed where he was. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"You're snapping and being more unreasonable than usual, clearly something's wrong." His brother said nothing. "C'mon Doc, give me credit. I may not be a genius but I can tell when my brothers are upset. Spill."

"I don't know."

"Doc."

"I don't! I'm just irritated. Everything annoys me today. It's probably puberty."

Dreamy pulled a face. "Too much information, Doc."

"Sorry."

"You sure that's it?"

"Yeah."

"Doc! Dreamy! Get in here, I need to keep an eye on you!" Sleepy called from the living room.

"An eye? He does realise we're thirteen and twelve not three and two?" Dreamy said.

Doc gave a laugh. "He means well. C'mon let's go."


	21. Home Alone Part 2

**Hey! I am so sorry for the long gap, but occasionally my mind just goes on strike when it comes to these stories.**

 **Just a couple of things, 1** **st** **up thanks to Imaganista and Anonymous for reviewing. Secondly I've written [and more importantly completed] a story for Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn, if any of you feel like checking it out, please do. It's called 'The Unquadable'**

 **Anyway let's get on, see chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

"Doc! Dreamy!" Sleepy called again sounding a bit more irritated this time.

"Yeah, cool it, Sleep!" Doc snapped. "We're comin' as soon as we clear all this stuff up."

"What stuff?"

Doc sighed before leaning on the chair. "The plates, the cutlery, the crusts that Sneezy and Happy refused to eat, the art stuff on the sideboard, and the glitter everywhere…shall I go on?"

"Point taken just make it quick, for god's sake."

Doc didn't respond to his only older brother and instead started picked up the art supplies. "I'll get these, you get the plates and cutlery."

It took Dreamy a moment to realise he was talking to him. "Yep. Got it." As he watched his immediate older brother start doing things he mentally sighed. Ninety percent of the time it was brilliant having a brother like Doc, especially with them being so close in age. He was always available to help with homework and do fun things with like building models and doing experiments and that kind of thing. And he was quite a good listener, and he was very patient…

"Dreamy! Don't just stand there staring into space! Get moving!"

Dreamy sighed out loud this time as he picked the plates up, rattling them a little to make sure his brother heard him. Then there were days like today when he could cheerfully throttle him.

Stepping into the kitchen the unfortunate happened, he cleverly managed to trip over his own two feet and the plates went on the floor. The bottom two smashed, though the rest were fine.

As Dreamy lay on the floor a little in shock Doc appeared behind him. "Oh for god's sake Dreams! Can you not do anything right!?"

With that a surge of anger bubbled up inside Dreamy's chest. "I'm fine thanks for asking!" He spat out.

Before Doc could say anything Sleepy was on the scene with Sneezy and Happy a few feet behind him. "What's going on?"

"Dreamy broke the plates!"

"Doc's being an idiot!" The two said together.

Sleepy blinked, took a deep breath and surveyed the scene. Then he said calmly. "Right, Happy take Sneezy and go back into the living room."

When the two youngest had gone the oldest looked straight at Dreamy. "Are you alright Dreamy?"

"Yeah."

"Sure? No cuts, bruises anything?"

"No."

Sleepy paused, looking at him quickly to make sure there was nothing obvious. "You've not broken anything?"

"He said he was fine." Doc said, sharply, only to shrink back when his only older brother turned a piercing eye on him.

Sleepy nodded. "Okay, Doc, make yourself useful and start picking up pieces and stuff. Do me a favour and try not to cut yourself, that's the last thing we need. Dreamy, a word?"

The dwarf in question picked himself of the floor and dusted himself down before throwing a scornful glare at Doc.

"Dreamy."

"Comin'" He muttered following Sleepy out the kitchen.

Sleepy meanwhile was mentally debating exactly how to express his feelings at this precise moment in time. Next thing he knew he heard himself saying: "Why is that ninety nine point nine-nine-nine percent of the time you two get along fine, but the ONE time I'm left in charge for more than an hour you decide to nearly kill each other!?"

Dreamy shuffled his feet. "It weren't that bad..."

"You know what I mean! Why, Dreams, why? Why now for flip's sake!?"

"Because he's choosing today to be irritating and downright unreasonable!"

"Right." Sleepy took a deep breath. "Tell me calmly what happened from the start, please."

So with that Dreamy explained what had happened since lunch, with the level of embellishment which might be expected from a twelve year old.

When he'd finished Sleepy nodded. "Right. Okay." He put his hand on his forehead feeling a headache coming on. "Okay."

"So what are you gonna do?"

"Huh?"

Dreamy rolled his eyes. "About Mr Grumpy-pants in there." He nodded towards the kitchen.

"I'll have a word with him." Sleepy told the floor.

"When?"

"Now."

"Great." Dreamy moved towards the kitchen door and immediately Sleepy put his hand out.

"Whoa, not with you there."

His younger brother glared before stepping back and folding his arms. "Well, what am I meant to do then?"

"Go in the living room and look after Happy and Sneezy." Sleepy ordered.

When his middle brother had left the room Sleepy sighed, ran his hand across his forehead before looking at the door. This was going to go well. Never the less it had to be done. With that final thought Sleepy went into the kitchen.

He had to admit he was impressed, in the short space of under two minutes Doc had picked up the stuff of the floor thrown the crusts and the shards and things away, stacked the plates by the side and was currently washing them. Knowing how to deal with his brother by now Sleepy simply asked. "What do you want me to do?"

"Check the floor. I got all the obvious bits up but I might have missed some."

Nodding Sleepy immediately started examining said floor, when he finished he leaned against the sideboard and waited. Two minutes later Doc put the last plate to the side and then paused. He let out a juddering sigh before asking quietly. "Does Dreamy hate me?"

His older brother didn't even hesitate. "No. Is he extremely frustrated with you at the moment? Yes. Hate you? Definitely not."

Another pause and then. "I shouldn't have snapped at him."

"No you shouldn't."

"He can't help falling over."

"He can't." There was another pause and Sleepy seized the moment. "What is _up_ with you today?" No response. "C'mon something's obviously wrong." Still no response. Clutching at straws the oldest said. "You're not being bullied again are you?"

"No definitely not." Doc was quick to assure him.

"Well what _is_ it then?"

Another pause and just at the point Sleepy was ready to punch him, his immediate younger brother told him. "I can't help feeling I'm not doing enough."

The oldest scrunched his nose up. "What?"

"I'm thirteen now."

"I know, I was there on your birthday. You defeated us all at bowling."

Doc smiled at the memory before carrying on. "But since then I've been kinda thinking I need to do more about helping people. I thought seeing as mum and dad were out I could start doing more, but all I've done is annoy Dreamy."

"You don't need to do loads, Doc. You do enough. You help out with the younger ones homework, which is a massive task in itself. You look after the little ones when I nod of…"

"Dreamy helps."

"Even so, it's still good. You…" Sleepy racked his mind. "You do your room. You do your fair share of chores. You do lots. We all do, it's part of the parcel of being a large family, you can't _not_ help really."

Doc looked at the floor before saying slowly. "Yeah I suppose…"

"Look, just remember." Sleepy hauled himself of the side and put a comforting hand on Doc's shoulder. "Turning thirteen isn't the be all and all. Yes, you're a teenager but no ones expecting you to suddenly become super competent and start doing everything yourself. Even mum and dad can't do everything by themselves. I'll give you an example, Dad told me this morning that if he wasn't back in time I could give Sneezy his Flonase. Two things wrong with that, one Mum should be back by then and secondly, and more importantly, he explicitly said I can't give Sneezy his meds till I'm sixteen, so…"

Doc gave a laugh. "Do you reckon he's getting our birthdays mixed up?"

"Wouldn't surprise me. There are six of us, I can't keep it straight. All I know is once every couple of months Mum will go, 'Have you got a present for x?' and I'm like, 'Huh?'."

They shared a laugh and Sleepy walked his brother towards to the door. "Just remember, Doc, you ever have any issues or stuff come to me. I am, after all, the fountain of all knowledge."

Doc gave an impish grin. "Really? So I could ask you…"

"Don't even go there." Sleepy said, he'd forgotten who he was talking to. And with that the brothers left the kitchen.


	22. August 28th

**Hey! I'm back, thanks to Imagnosista for the lovely guest review! It made my day. Okay, this chapter takes place on Bashful's birthday.**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

Sleepy was woken at the early [for him] time of 9 o clock on a Saturday morning. The reason irritated him greatly, Happy was singing at the top of his lungs.

"Happy birthday Bash-ful! No, no…Happy, happy birthday to you and only you! No." Sleepy fully opened his eyes to see Happy sitting on his own bed in deep though. Happy suddenly clicked his fingers. "Got it! Hap-py-birth-day-lit-tle-Bash-ful-"

"Hap-py-shut-up, it's-too-ear-ly." Sleepy matched Happy's voice.

His younger brother grinned. "Sorry Sleepy. It's Bashful's birthday today!"

The eldest sat up, rubbing his eyes. "I know. Mum hasn't shut up about it for the past two weeks. Have you got your present for him?"

Happy leapt of the bed and grabbed a small present generously covered in wrapping paper. "It's right here!"

"Fantastic. What is it?"

"Uh-uh. Not telling."

"Suit yourself…"

Meanwhile Watchful was helping Sneezy with his medicine. "There all done." He announced, putting the medicine away in the special cabinet.

"Bashful's birthdays today?" The five year old asked.

"It is. Do you know how old he is?"

The child wasted no time. "Two!"

"Good boy. I knew sending you to Kind Hearts wasn't a waste of time…"

At the exact time Watchful was helping Sneezy and Sleepy and Happy were getting ready, Doc and Dreamy were in their room looking at Bashful who was asleep. Well, Doc was looking at him, Dreamy was reading a book.

"I don't get it."

"Get what?" Dreamy said, turning a page.

"Why are we celebrating Bashful's birthday?"

"Cos it's his birthday?" The middle brother wondered if his immediate older brother had lost his senses.

"No, I mean, why are we celebrating it?"

Dreamy paused thinking that statement over before deciding, no. It still didn't make any sense whatsoever. He put his book down, sensing this was going to be a long conversation. "Alright, I'm not getting you. Do me a favour and explain."

Doc got up and sat next to Dreamy before indicating Bashful. "He's turning two today, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Two year olds can't remember things. It's a scientific fact."

"Are you sure?"

"And how many things can you remember from when you were two?"

Dreamy thought it over. "Okay, you have a point…"

"Of course. So why are we doing it? Mum's made a cake that's taken her hours to bake. We've all brought him presents and…what for? He's not going to remember it. He's not. He's just not."

The dark haired boy ran his fingers through his hair trying to figure out how exactly to explain this. He let out a small laugh when he remembered the kids at school telling his how brilliant it must be to have a genius in the family to help out. Yeah, it was. Homework – you were sorted for life. Anything that doesn't involve academics however was the complete opposite.

Eventually he decided however. "He…he might not remember it, but we will. We can tell him about it when he's older and he gets to birthdays he can remember, which would be which age, by the way?"

"Four or five, I think."

"Okay, four or five, so I'll be thirteen or fourteen. You'll be fifteen or sixteen. Sleepy will be seventeen or eighteen. Happy will be ten or eleven and Sneezy will be seven or eight…"

"So?"

"So we'll be able to remember it, won't we? So if Bashful should ask when he's a bit older 'Oh, by the way, what'd you do for my second birthday?' we'll be able to tell him. And then he won't be able to accuse mum and dad of not doing anything for him when he's older. Not saying that he will, but he might." Dreamy threw his brother a look. "Do you understand?" He asked a touch desperately.

"Yeah…okay. So we're basically making sure we do everything for him now so in the future he can't turn around and say we didn't do anything for him. It's protection against us, basically."

Dreamy blinked. "Er…I don't think that quite what I-"

"BOYS!" Gentle called from downstairs. "C'mon down and bring Bashful, breakfast is ready!"

With that Doc leapt of the bed and gently scooped his brother out of the cot. "C'mon mister. Thanks Dreams!"

"N-no problem…" With that the middle brother hauled himself of his bed and followed his sibling downstairs.


	23. Just a normal morning

**Hey! I'm back, thanks to Imoganista for reviewing and reminding me the story exists. Okay, so without wanting to give too much away this story is going to get slightly more darker from after this chapter. So here we go with the next chapter.**

 **See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

"Sleepy. Sleepy." Watchful was currently trying to wake his son up.

Sleepy snored a little bit and turned over. Watchful sighed and poked him in the sides. "C'mon, kid, get moving." God how Sleepy would hate it if he heard him calling him 'kid'.

"Do you want me to wake him, dad?" Happy asked eagerly, from his elbow.

Watchful, knowing that by 'wake him' Happy meant 'jump on him', nipped that suggestion in the bud.

The reason he wanted Sleepy up was so he could show him how to apply Sneezy's Flonase. Although his eldest had turned sixteen three days ago Watchful had deliberately waited for the excitement to wear of before showing him.

Sneezy, who had been sitting quietly on the floor, decided that this had been going on quite enough and, getting up, went to his own bed grabbed his pillow and ignoring his father's cry of 'What are you doing?' smacked the pillow down hard on Sleepy's face, the shock of his nose being temporarily smothered meant Sleepy woke up with a start.

As Happy rolled on the floor, doubled up in laughter, Watchful brandished the pillow he'd snatched from Sneezy in the child's face. 'That was a very stupid thing to do! You do NOT put pillows over people's faces, Sneezy! He could suffocate!"

"What's that mean?"

"Die." Watchful said bluntly.

His eldest groggily asked who was dying.

"No one. Just get up."

"Five more minutes?"

"No, now look, do you want to give Sneezy his medication or don't you?"

The effect was immediate. Sleepy leapt out of bed and grabbed Sneezy's hand. "Great, c'mon!"

"You're hurting me!" Sneezy wailed as Sleepy dragged him from the room.

"Sleepy let go of him!" Watchful said, as he left the room. He collided with Gentle and knocked the basket of laundry she was carrying to the floor.

He apologised as they both scrambled for the various items of clothing. "No problem. What's going on?"

Watchful looked her in the eyes as he flung tops on top of the pile in the basket. "It's Flonase day."

Gentle nodded and wished him luck.

As soon as Watchful enterd the bathroom Sleepy told him he'd got the bottle down and had got Sneezy to blow his nose.

Watchful nodded. "Good. You've shook the bottle?"

His sons look of confusion hited that he hadn't. Watchful smiled softly as he picked up the bottle and gave it a firm shake. "It makes sure nothings rested on the bottom. Now, watch me."

Sleepy watched as Watchful knelt down to Sneezy's level and gently put the end of the spray in his sons nose. "Breath." He said. As Sneezy did so Watchful quickly sprayed the bottle. He stood up and looked at his eldest. "Did you get that?"

Sleepy had actually already memorised the instruction by heart, but he decided not to share that. "Got it."

"Show me then." So Sleepy did exactly what his dad had done. "How was that? He asked when he'd finished and Sneezy had run of.

Watchful nodded. "Very good. I think me and you will do this for a week, just to get Sneezy used to you doing it, then I'll bow out gracefully, what do you think?"

Sleepy would have actually preferred it if his dad had bowed out at that precise time, but knowing not to push his look he said, trying to not to sound sarcastic or annoyed. "Yeah, that's great."

It worked clearly because Watchful ruffled his hair before saying. "Atta boy."

As soon as his dad was safely down the stairs Sleepy looked in the mirror and fixed his hair. He heard a voice behind him.

"How'd it go, then?" It was Dreamy, leaning against the doorframe with his arms folded. Trying to look cool, probably, Sleepy thought as he flicked his fringe over. Pathetic.

Out loud he said. "It went good. As I knew it would. I've known how to do it for like the past, two years? Yeah, two years."

"Good. Your fringe looks like a cow licked it, by the way."

Sleepy paused, hands above his head. Then he snapped. "Like you look any better. Going gangsta are we?"

Dreamy looked surprised. "Whatdya mean?"

Sleepy imitated his brother's pose. "M.C. Dreams?"

"In the house."

Sleepy lightly clonked his brother on the back of the head. "Idiot."

"Takes one to know one." Dreamy called.

Doc opened his bedroom door as Sleepy went down the stairs. "What's going on?"

"Well, Sleepy just called me an idiot, but apart from that, nothing."

"Takes one to know one."

"Exactly what I said. You aright?"

Doc nodded.

Dreamy nodded back and stretched. "Right, shall we get some breakfast?" Together they walked downstairs.


	24. Sneezy

**Hey! I'm back, hope you guys are enjoying the run-up to Christmas. Now, I did promise you last chapter it was going to get a bit darker, so with no further ado lets' begin!**

 **I, don't want to ruin it, so there's another authors note at the end of the chapter.**

 **I do not own Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the 7D or any associated characters.**

Sneezy was lying in his bed listening to the gentle breaths of both Sleepy and Happy. He had no idea what time it was but knew it must be quite late.

With that thought he got out of bed, tiptoed across to the window and looked out to the sundial in the garden. Doc had installed it as a present to their dad last Christmas. That seemed an age ago although it wasn't actually that long ago. A couple of weeks maybe?

Then the cry from the next room started. Sneezy sighed. That'd be baby Dopey, the newest arrival to the dwarf family.

The familiar tickling feeling at the back of his nose started and he pinned his nose closed before sneezing.

Sleepy grunted and Sneezy froze, afraid his brother would wake and scold him for being out of bed at…he looked out at the sundial again. 2 AM? Sometime around there.

Dopey's wail's increased in volume. Sneezy sighed again and looked at his brothers. Neither of them were stirring. He knew Sleepy wouldn't wake up the guy could sleep like the dead, but Happy should be waking up, surely.

As Dopey's cry got even louder Sneezy decided to go and see what his baby brother wanted. After all, it couldn't be that hard could it? Mum used to feed Bashful all the time. You just heated the bottle up. But you need the baby first.

With that he opened his bedroom door…to see Doc going into Watchful's room.

Sneezy followed him and stood shyly in the doorway as he watched Doc make soothing noises as he lifted the baby out the old handmade crib.

"Is he hungry?"

Doc nearly dropped Dopey upon hearing that but he managed not to and instead just muttered something under his breath as he turned to face his younger brother. "Sneezy, what are you doing up? It's two in the morning." He sounded tired.

Sneezy hugged the doorframe. "I couldn't sleep."

Doc adjusted the sniffling Dopey in his arms. "Still thinking about mum?" he said softly.

Sneezy nodded and to his horror felt tears welling up in his eyes.

Doc, still holding Dopey, walked over and as best he could with one arm, hugged his brother. "Sssh. It's alright…"

"It's not alright! She's dead!" Sneezy burst out.

In the corner of the room Watchful's snores stopped and both Doc and Sneezy froze. Then they started again.

Doc sighed. "C'mon. Let's go downstairs before dad wakes up. C'mon. Let's go." And with that he took Sneezy's hand and led him downstairs.

Sneezy sat himself in a chair as Doc settled Dopey before taking a bottle from the cupboard and starting heating some milk up.

Sneezy sat in silence until his older brother finished making the bottle and gave it to a clearly-hungry Dopey who immediately started guzzling it down like he hadn't just been fed a couple of hours before.

"Now." Doc sat in another chair. "Let's talk about mum."

Sneezy felt the tears pricking at his eyes again. "I miss her." And with that he climbed onto his brothers lap.

Doc immediately hugged his brother. "I know. I miss her to."

"Dad doesn't." Sneezy muttered into his brothers chest.

Doc frowned before pulling his brother back and looking straight at him. "Now why do you think that?"

"He hasn't cried. He doesn't seem sad."

"He is sad, Sneeze. Trust me he is. He might not be sobbing his heart out but he is sad."

"Why isn't he crying then?"

Doc sighed. How the heck did you explain this to an six year old? "Not…not everyone is…sad in the same way, Sneezy."

"But why?"

"I don't know."

"Why!?" Sneezy snapped, feeling frustrated. "You know everything!"

"No I don't Sneezy! I don't know everything and it's unfair of you to think I do!"

"What's unfair?"

Doc fought down a wave of anger. This was not a conversation he wanted to be having at half-past two in the morning. "It means wrong."

"Why's it wrong? You're a ge-gene…"

"Genius. And even geniuses don't know everything."

"But.."

"Just. Leave it, Sneezy please. It's too late for this."

Sneezy frowned before feeling the tickling feeling in his nose again. He wasn't able to pinch his nose in time and instead sneezed all over Dopey.

"Sneezy!" Doc shoved him of his lap. "C'mon man, don't sneeze all over Dopey! He's only a baby the last thing we need now is him being sick!"

Doc hadn't really shouted that loudly but the suddenness of it caused Dopey to burst into tears.

And with that Sneezy burst into tears and screamed. "I hate you! I hate you! You're horrible, I want mum!" He was crying so hard he didn't really notice someone was rubbing his back. He looked up to see Doc's hair in his face.

"I'm sorry Sneezy." Doc said softly. "I didn't mean to shout at you. You didn't mean to sneeze. And Dopey had to get sick at some point in his life. I'm sorry, alright. I love you."

Sneezy sniffed. "Love you to." There was a silence then Sneezy said. "I don't think you're horrible. You're nice really."

"Thanks Sneeze." With that Doc patted his back and then stood up. "Right. Let's get to bed then, it's 2:45. C'mon, I'll get Dopey."

Sneezy watched as Doc gathered Dopey up in his arms. "I can't believe no one woke up with you yelling like that." Doc said, rubbing Dopey's back. "Never mind. Tomorrow's a new day. Right, bed time let's go."

And with that the brothers left the room.

 **Alright, so yes Gentle's died. There will be a chapter dedicated to each of her family dealing with it over time. With the exception of Dopey and Bashful as they're too young. So this was Sneezy's.**

 **Hope you guys have a great Christmas.**


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